Today was an important day for AKEL General Secretary Stefanos Stefanou, in his speech at the party's Extraordinary Pancyprian Conference for the Presidential Elections.
AKEL, he said, always approaches the Presidential Elections as a starting point to open up new perspectives and new horizons for our country and our society.
Regarding the candidacy of Andreas Mavrogiannis, he said that AKEL is convinced that he meets the standards they have set, can lead and express the effort to achieve progressive change and is a winning choice. At the same time he stressed, "We are convinced that in Andreas Mavroyiannis our country can once again move confidently into the future".
During his speech he referred to the party's positions on issues such as the Cyprus problem, the economy, health, making special reference to the YESY, children and the rule of law.
At some points in his speech, Mr. Stefanou criticized the government's handling of the issue, saying that "we do not tolerate Cyprus being slandered in the headlines and mainstream news of international media. We must put an end to this state of affairs to which the behaviour of those in power has led us."
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Below is the speech of the General Secretary of AKEL
[/P]This is an important day. Not only because the Pancyprian Conference is the culmination of a long course of internal party dialogue with members, New Forces and friends of the party.
It is important because here we are not deciding on a person or an election battle. Here we decide for our country.
For us Cyprus goes beyond party and ideology and any personal beliefs. Because the decision for Cyprus is a decision for tomorrow. For our children. For the young people who are among us today and rightfully demand a homeland that will embrace their dreams.
This is where I want to start today. From the dilemma of the upcoming presidential elections which will determine our decision today:
Do we want a Cyprus that suits the current rulers or a homeland for those who are not comfortable with truncated dreams?
With this question in mind, we started the internal party processes which led us to today's Pancyprian Conference.
At AKEL we are proud of the democratic procedures we follow. Procedures that combine dialogue with the evaluation of all the facts surrounding the Presidential Elections and the synthesis of different opinions. It is through this co-ordinated process that party members have a voice and a role and participate in decision making.
AKEL is neither afraid nor shy of dialogue with its people. On the contrary! It seeks it because it is through discussion and reflection that the best possible decisions can be taken. It is through this process that the leadership gets the feeling and opinion of the grassroots and what we call collective wisdom works.
We in AKEL are proud of another fact: that regardless of the opinions that exist, when decisions are taken, we all rally behind them and throw ourselves into work to implement them. All together with one fist, with one momentum, with strength and momentum. That is how we have always done it.
That is how we will do it now! Once we make our final decision today at the Conference, we will all throw ourselves into the difficult battle of the Presidential Elections. Because for us, elections are not about party calculations and personal agendas. They have nothing to do with the allocation of ministerial and institutional posts, nor with spoils of power. For us, these things do not count. We do not count them. For us what counts, our only criterion and concern is how best to serve our country and its people. How our people will continue to live and create on this wonderful island.
AKEL always approaches the Presidential Elections as a starting point to open new perspectives and new horizons for our country and our society.
Especially now that our Cyprus is facing many and serious deadlocks, many of which were caused by the ten-year rule of DISY. Now, when we must face them with determination and find solutions to the multiple problems that plague the country.
First of all, it is imperative for Cyprus to get out of the quagmire of the prolonged stalemate that consolidates the division. We want, seek and will continue to work consistently, giving all our efforts to ensure that a better day dawns for our country and our society.
We want, seek and will continue to work consistently, giving all our efforts to ensure that a better day dawns for our country and our society.
We want, seek and will continue to work consistently, giving all our efforts to ensure that a better day dawns for our country and our society. To turn the page and move forward.
The future of our country is for us identified with progressive change. This is what our country needs. This is what our people seek.
Progressive change is not an empty slogan without content. Progressive change contains the vision and challenges of a new era that is difficult, contradictory and demanding. It contains the plan of action that is concrete and targeted. Thick words, big slogans and inexpensive "I pledge" get us nowhere. We have been living in this situation for almost ten years. That is why we must and will leave them behind.
We can achieve progressive change by activating all the forces of our country and all the talents of our people.
We can and must again inspire society, beat fatalism and restore optimism. Restore the smile on the faces of our people, who live with the daily stress and pressure of social and economic insecurity.
Cyprus
Progressive change has at its core the promotion of a solution to the Cyprus problem. A solution that ends the Turkish occupation, gets rid of the dichotomous barbed wire and reunites our land and our people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
Many people ask: but is it possible to solve the Cyprus problem with such a provocative and aggressive Turkey against us?
We answer: if we do not move, if we do not take concrete initiatives to create momentum to restart the negotiations from the point where they were interrupted, building on the acquis created through years of negotiations, no one else will move on our behalf.
Unless we put the need for a solution before Turkey with concrete proposals that create momentum, Turkey will continue to instrumentalise the prolonged stalemate and consolidate the division on the ground. This is what it is doing now in Famagusta, whose opening of the enclosed area was ultimately neither a firework nor a communication ploy by Turkey.
Cyprus is unfortunately on the verge of definitive partition. We do not compromise and do not accept partition. We will continue to oppose it by fighting for the solution of our national problem.
Economy
Progressive change involves the formulation of a new development model that will ensure stability and sustainability in the local economy and produce quality jobs. A model that definitively and irrevocably abandons the policies of predation and temporary profit, which during the DISY government became an official and recurrent practice. It invests in the comparative advantages of our country and in the traditional sectors that have proved their importance over the years. First and foremost, it supports small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the backbone of our economy. At the same time, it integrates and exploits new technologies, research and innovation, creating new sectors of economic and business activity. The new model promotes the green and circular economy.
Welfare state
Progressive change involves strengthening and upgrading the welfare state so that it can adequately and qualitatively meet the basic needs of society. It must be able to deal decisively with social inequality and not feed and reinforce it, as is the case now. We aim to create a welfare state that guarantees dignity to workers, pensioners, vulnerable groups, refugees, victims, the young generation, which must be based on the acquisition of a family and a home, which is currently an elusive dream.
Work with rights
Progressive Change promotes regulations that put a stop to the phenomena of cheap and unfair labour and unregulated forms of work. It institutionally ensures the implementation of collective agreements. It guarantees decent wages and basic rights.
Public Health
Progressive change promotes and supports public health care which must be provided universally, equally and qualitatively by the GHS. The GHS is a great social achievement. It must be protected from undermining and at the same time improved, its shortcomings and weaknesses must be addressed without changing its philosophy, character and architecture. Progressive change supports and upgrades public hospitals as the backbone of the GHS.
Quality Education
An essential pillar of progressive change is the existence of modern, democratic and humane education that makes our children happy, enjoy life and have the will to create. An education that does not burden our children with stress and pressure, victims of an exam-centred system and para-education.
Rule of law
Progressive change includes the restoration of the rule of law to uphold human rights and civil liberties, equal treatment of citizens without discrimination, unhindered access to justice, respect for independent institutions and their independence from political interference.
Progressive change resolutely and without any compromise stands against corruption and corruption, which during the days of the government of the Coalition has really taken off.
An important element and pursuit of change is the restoration of the international credibility of our country, which has been shattered due to the policy of golden passports and the deception of European institutions by those in power. We do not tolerate Cyprus being vilified in the headlines and mainstream news of international media. We must put an end to this state of affairs to which the behaviour of those in power has led us.
Environment
Progressive change involves the protection and development of the environment. To do so requires ending policies that sacrifice the environment on the altar of big interests, anarchic and unplanned developments. The priority is to protect natural resources from anarchic development.
The problems are many. Even more are the challenges facing our country. The task is very difficult. Local and international conditions are difficult anyway. The need for change arises from everywhere. We have the vision, we have the will to pull the country out of the quagmire and bring about real change. And I stress 'real' as the presidential election is not just about faces. The real stakes are about policies. On the one hand, there are those who want the Anastasiades-Democratic Rally government to continue. On the other hand, those who want the country to finally turn the page are lined up.
For this to be possible, we as AKEL recognise and understand the need for cooperation and rallying of as many forces as possible.
Throughout the previous period, we worked very hard to achieve understanding and cooperation. Talking first and foremost with the opposition parties. In order to achieve cooperation we went the extra mile, we proposed to support a candidate from the broader opposition who can express all the forces that aspire to change. The fact that cooperation at the leadership level was not achieved does not mean that we are abandoning the effort to build a grand social coalition.
Supporting an independent and non-partisan candidate meets the needs of our time. Because an independent candidate can bridge differences, create convergences, synthesize and unite forces, and cultivate the ground for the necessary transitions. He can effectively counter the distrust and suspicion with which a part of society views the parties and the political system. It can re-inspire optimism and the desire to create.
From the beginning of our effort to build partnerships, we have sought an independent candidate who meets certain standards. A candidate who shares with us the need for progressive change in the country. A change that begins with a solution to the Cyprus problem on the basis of a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality, as defined by the relevant United Nations resolutions. A change that has a strong social dimension, that puts the human being and his or her legitimate needs at the centre of policies. To serve the well-meaning interests of the many and not the few, the privileged, the elites and the establishment as has been the case in recent years. To be deeply knowledgeable about the Cyprus issue and convinced that without a solution and reunification of the country our people have no future. Have knowledge of domestic and international politics and economics. To have social sensitivity, because in the difficult world we live in, the first thing that is needed is sensitivity to the concerns and problems of the people, a large part of whom are suffering from poverty and the rally of rising prices of basic goods.
We looked for a candidate with important connections in international politics, to restore the shattered prestige of our country.
We looked for a candidate who, although independent, has a history of cooperation with the political forces. We sought and discussed a candidate who can credibly and convincingly address society at large and achieve the coordination of efforts, the rallying of forces to open a new page for our Cyprus.
We sought and discussed a candidate who can credibly and convincingly address society at large and achieve the coordination of efforts, the rallying of forces to open a new page for our Cyprus.
Following our procedures, discussing both at the leadership and grassroots level, we came up with the proposal for Andreas Mavroyiannis. An accomplished diplomat who for years has successfully served Cyprus and our people from various important positions.
We are convinced that Andreas Mavroyiannis meets the standards we have set.
We are convinced that Andreas Mavroyiannis can lead and articulate the effort to achieve progressive change.
We are convinced that Andreas Mavroyiannis is a winning choice.
We are convinced that in Andreas Mavroyiannis our country can once again move confidently into the future.
Today, we complete our procedures and make our decisions. From today we roll up our sleeves and get to work.
So that we can look our young people in the eye.
For our Cyprus and our people.
United we will fight for change.
Message of change from Harris Karamanos
In his introductory speech, Harris Karamanos stressed that today's conference "is the end and the beginning of a journey". He noted that "if everyone agreed on something in this long dialogue within the Party, it is that there is no other choice, the only way is Change. It is to rid our country of the Anastasiades-DIS government" and argued that "even their own voters, their own people are now openly declaring that they can't take it anymore. I am sure we have heard it hundreds of times from all of us in this room."
The speech follows in full:
We welcome you to the AKEL Pancyprian Conference. The Conference is meeting to discuss the Central Committee's proposal for the candidate that AKEL will support in the 2023 Presidential Elections.
February 2023 will be the month that, one way or another, will determine the course of Cyprus and the Cypriot people. The future of our country literally hangs in the balance. Who is at the helm will determine the future of our country, our people and our children. The Anastasiades Rally government deliberately chose to put the burden of the economic crisis on the workers. It proceeded at will to sell off state and public wealth with an unprecedented arrogance. It pursued measures and policies that made the rich richer and impoverished the people. It made unworthiness the norm, buffoonery the order of the day. He embarrassed Cyprus internationally, giving a Cypriot passport to every crook, so that they and their chosen ones could get rich. It drove the Cyprus problem into a quagmire, with partition knocking at our door.
It is, therefore, a common conclusion, not only of the world of the Left, but also of the overwhelming majority of society, that this is no longer the case. They have to go.
This is the great stakes of the presidential election. To block the way to the most conservative, reactionary, unpopular and corrupt government that Cyprus has ever known. To pave the way for the great progressive Change.
Not many can do what is happening here today. AKEL has once again proved its strength. Because faith in democratic processes, trust in the party base, the will to hear EVERY point of view, to discuss EVERY point of view, EVERY suggestion and to take decisions, is strength. Power that is genuine, solid, motivating.
All the Members, Young Forces and Friends of the Party who participated freely and democratically in this intra-party dialogue deserve warm congratulations. While others are applauding the one who decided to impose himself on them, the AKELists are discussing, voting, deciding and moving forward. That is what we are proud of. For the fermentation, not the dry process. For the political education cultivated through this dialogue. For what is in the DNA of AKEL. Collectivity in decisions, collectivity in work.
Today's Conference will end with a decision. It is the end and the starting point of a course. If everyone agreed on something in this long dialogue within the Party, it is that there is no other choice, the only way is Change. It is to rid our country of the Anastasiades-DISY government. Even their own voters, their own people are now openly declaring that they can't take it anymore. I am sure that all of us in this room have heard it hundreds of times.
Now, all together with unity, with optimism, with strength, with self-confidence, so that the country can finally turn the page.
Now, all together to step forward and with hard work to bring Change.
Now, all together to step forward and with hard work to bring Change. For all those out there who are waiting for us to solve, to start, for better days to finally dawn for Cyprus.
So, everyone, from tomorrow, let us all do what only AKEL can do. To prove that nothing is impossible. We want, we can and we will win this battle. That is what they fear.
Not a single moment to be wasted, not a single conscience to be spared. With the heavy sense of responsibility that AKELists have towards our country and our people, let us emerge from this hall more united, more determined, more ready than ever for Change, for VICTORY.
Good fights. Good strength. From today we turn hope into a powerful force for CHANGE.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
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