No decision has been taken to date by the Democratic Party - Coalition of Democratic Forces on the 2023 Presidential Elections with Mario Karoyan stating that "for us there are other priorities and early presidential elections are the worst, we judge it and consider it harmful". He said that the party will take its decisions no earlier than March 2022, not excluding anyone and not being allergic to anyone.
In a full press conference to be broadcast by RIK 2 at 18.30 in the afternoon, Mr. Karoyan, responding to a question on whether some planning has already been done in the party ahead of the 2023 presidential elections, said that "if we operate from now on in this way, we will go down paths where no one will be able to calculate the consequences."
He added that "this is why we have consciously decided that we are not going to engage in premature dangerous presidential politics before March because Cyprus is small and it does not take more than four to five months for each partnership and each candidate to get their messages across to society."
"For us the first priority and our appeal to all political forces is to expend precious energy and grey matter to pass as soon as possible the reforms both in the judiciary and in local government and in the issues of corruption and corruption," said the President of the PPP - Democratic Forces Cooperation.
He noted that both the Government and the ruling party have to decide whether they want to enter the presidential election whirlpool or whether work has to be produced because Cyprus cannot afford any more lapses, any more setbacks and any more delays and the people have exhausted any room for endurance and patience."
"We are sewing costumes for the elections instead of sewing reforms and policies that will relieve the people and lead Cyprus at a different speed to the needs of the new era," he said.
In response to a journalist's comment that the PPP does not oppose the government and possibly its plans for the Presidential Elections fall within this framework, Mr. Karoyan said that "if any government proposes things that we feel are good and right for the country we have no allergy and no inhibition to encourage them because we will want more good things to happen, unlike what has been in opposition so far, black and white."
"Is it possible for a government in a whole term to do everything wrong?" he asked, adding that "what is right we will not flatten it, we will not cancel it because we want to be in the opposition or because we have to do black and white and on the other hand we had no inhibition to go along with the opposition on issues that we think the government is handling badly."
In a comment that a portion of the public takes for granted the cooperation between the PPP and DISY in the 2023 Presidential Elections, Mr. Karoyan said that he himself does not harbour this certainty, and that we as the DPA, "when the cycle of discussions opens, we will put all the issues on the table, have a fruitful dialogue and in the end we will make our own decisions."
"Above me and above my party, it is my country and when my country is in danger it would be at least selfish, ineffective and counterproductive to start now to exclude 'x' and 'p'," said the President of DIPA - Coalition of Democratic Forces.
In response to a question about the government's handling of the pandemic and especially the economic impact on the state and society, he said that "as far as the economic part is concerned, the government followed policies that were correct under the circumstances, but more could have been done and there is room for improvement and we believe that many of the suggestions of the political forces are moving in the right direction."
He added that some measures which the Ministry of Labour worked out could have been more targeted, and there were also bureaucratic issues such as people who were entitled to get grants and these were delayed for months.
"They could have acted more optimally, faster, without bureaucratic red tape, we had to be prepared for this and we say that there is still room to help people who are currently suffering," the PPP President said.
He advised "not to be afraid to break eggs" noting that in this context, the PPP, suggested that on essential goods, there is a zero VAT rate and "some people told us that we are populists with this proposal", but they were proved wrong because ECOFIN a few days ago announced that member states can follow this procedure with zero VAT.
In response to a question regarding the decrees and the way policies and measures are imposed on citizens, Mr. Karoyan said that we believe and respect science and there are experts who study and propose on the other hand, however, "we are also sensitive to the preservation of human rights and individual freedoms of people."
He added that he is against enforcement and fanatically in favour of persuasion through which you proceed because after all, our common enemy is the coronavirus.
Asked about the fact that the recent EU General Affairs Council failed to take a decision on the Turkish methods in Varosha and whether this is a failure of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Karoyan said that "it should be a never-ending effort to be able to convince us with arguments using realism and bitter reality to tell us that there are states which have their own interests and will not put them at risk to satisfy a small country which for them can only be a speck."
Asked if he intends to hand over his parliamentary seat in Limassol to Angelos Votsis, the PPP President replied that "Mr. Votsis was and is a great asset for me and for the party and such values are certainly not lost."
He added that in DIPA "we have a code and one supports the other, one tries to understand the other" and my priority after 10 years in Parliament and President of the House, "was not to sit on the parliamentary benches and I said that", but my priority was to set up this party properly.
"Because I know both the ethos and the man, Angelo Votsi, he and I, even though in the past we were accused of being chair people, in our lives we have fought and are fighting for principles, for policy positions and what we believe is right and we have not been afraid to go against the current and the wave," Marios Karoyan said.
In his introductory speech, Marios Karoyan said that "the top question is now one: what needs to change in the state, in politics, in society, in the economy, in the hierarchy of individual and collective goals, in the organization and functioning of institutions and relations?"
He added that "the time has come to change our way of thinking, planning our collective action, taking individual responsibilities, so that we do not lose our humanity, our cohesion, our hope for a more just, harmonious and balanced future, so that our Cyprus does not find itself tomorrow on the sidelines and our people in the queue of developments."
He added that "the time has come to change our way of thinking, planning our collective action, taking individual responsibilities, so that we do not lose our humanity, our cohesion, our hope for a more just, harmonious and balanced future, so that our Cyprus does not find itself tomorrow on the sidelines and our people in the queue of developments.
The President of the PPP said that "as long as new creative compositions and new inventive responses to new challenges are not produced from the clashes of old and new oppositions, the crisis will be recycled along with its dead ends, without achieving either the necessary adaptation to the new reality or the better tomorrow that we all desire".
He noted that "our Cyprus has been experiencing an unprecedented and particularly difficult period in recent years, the challenges are enormous, and our national issue is going through one of its most critical phases, with Turkey gradually consolidating its occupation and the partition of half of our country".
As Karoyan said, "the ongoing expansion of the occupation in the enclosed area of Famagusta is dragging with it any prospects for the resumption of talks and the chances of reaching an agreement for an acceptable, viable and workable solution."
Therefore, he continued, "the nagging question that arises is what do we do, how do we reverse a course that holds a bleak future for our country and in which, for years, Turkey has been trying to trap us".
Marios Karoyan said that "realizing the criticality of the moment, as the Democratic Party - Coalition of Democratic Forces, from the very beginning, we chose to speak to the people with clarity and absolute honesty, without embellishments, away from populism and without the cowardice of political cost."
He added that "in this context, we consider it extremely important that we remain faithful to our declared positions, seeking the immediate resumption of negotiations from the point where they were interrupted in Crans-Montana, with the aim of arriving at the only feasible and acceptable framework for a solution to the Cyprus problem, which is none other than a bizonal, bicommunal federation."
Mr. Karoyan assured that "as the Democratic Party - Coalition of Democratic Forces, we will continue to work and support every effort and initiative aimed in this direction".
He concluded by stating that "we reject any form of partition and support the achievement of a solution that is in line with the UN resolutions, the principles and values of the European Union, reunites our people and our country and guarantees the full implementation of human rights for all legal residents of Cyprus."
Source: CNA
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