At every opportunity, Stefanos Stefanou and Nicolas Papadopoulos stress that they want to work together, and a lot, but everything indicates that it will be very difficult for them to agree on the name of the candidate with whom they will contest for power in 2023. If there is no drastic change in the next few days, then the end of the effort for cooperation should be considered inevitable.
Stefanos Stefanou and Nicolas Papadopoulos are facing political dilemmas and very soon they will have to make a final decision on the course to follow, since time is running out, even as their main political rival, the President of DISY, has entered the election race. As time goes by, the task becomes even more difficult because dithering causes frustration and introversion undermines the momentum that can be created by a coalition between the two main opposition parties.
DIKO: Nicolas first choice
DIKO makes clear that the name of party president Nicolas Papadopoulos remains at the top of their options. Second, as an alternative proposal, the name of the party's deputy president, Christiana Erotokritou, was put forward, in order to facilitate dialogue with AKEL and provide a way out of the attempt, following the Left Party's position that the leaders of the parties should be excluded from the process. However, the other names put on the table by AKEL, Achilleas Demetriades, Erato Markoullis and Tasos Christofides, do not have the support of the DIKO leadership, which argues that Nicolas Papadopoulos has the profile of a candidate who meets the requirements of both parties. Apart from the issue of eligibility, DIKO argues that Nicolas Papadopoulos can also be supported by the EDEK, thus creating the conditions for a broader cooperation between the opposition parties.
By machine... third name
Based on the existing data, the only way to avoid the looming deadlock is to put a third name on the table that can be supported by the two parties, something that appears to be very difficult, but cannot be ruled out, since the dialogue is ongoing. Therefore, in their next meeting, Stefanos Stefanou and Nicolas Papadopoulos will take stock of the situation and give their latest proposals. Afterwards, the two leaders will take the data to the steering bodies of their parties, which will decide on what to do next. Things are becoming more difficult in AKEL because of the lengthy procedures followed by the party. The leadership would like to put such a serious decision through the suffering of the party grassroots, while it should also be noted that in order for the candidacy of Nicolas Papadopoulos, or even Christiana Erotokritou, to qualify, there would have to be a change in the decision of the Central Committee, which expressed the position that the party leaders (and consequently other officials) should be taken out of the debate. AKEL has scheduled a pan-Cypriot conference on 15 May to take the final decision.
Plan B
Things become even more complex for the next day of the two parties in case the attempt for cooperation fails. If there is no serious reversal, AKEL's options are essentially limited to the three names it put on the table in the dialogue with DIKO, namely Achilleas Demetriades, Erato Kozakos Markoullis and Tasos Christofides. Without ruling out other names, which may emerge in the process, the expansion of options cannot be rapid.
In DIKO, in the event of a deadlock in the dialogue with AKEL, all options will be put on the table, such as an independent candidacy with Nicolas Papadopoulos, or the support of another candidate. The candidacy of former deputy party president George Kolokasidis is a fact that cannot be ignored, while the emerging candidacy of Nicos Christodoulides, with his high popularity among the people of DIKO, is certainly a piece of the puzzle.
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