He raises the glove of the attacks that the Government receives to oppose that President Anastasiadis received a heavy winter from the previous rulers and tries to bring spring. The deputy chairman of the Democratic Alarm, Lefteris Christoforou, underlines that the new government managed to reorganize the welfare state, which was weakened without money, and to institutionalize the minimum guaranteed income. He emphasizes the difficulty of the project because, as he states, "it is not easy to take over the government not only with a licensed treasurer but with indebted funds with billions. It is not easy to pick up an economy that was mathematically driven to bankruptcy and try to make it stand on its own two feet.
- The opposition accuses the current Government of promising in the spring, but what it has brought is a severe winter. What is your comment on this view?
- The current Government has received a severe winter with the Cypriot economy and the place in deep darkness. With our country in a dead end tunnel and society and the economy with incredible debts of 10 billion euros, budget deficit and 10 billion ELA. Unbelievable, considering that the Gross National Product is only 15-17 billion, some managed within five years to charge the next five generations. This is the harsh reality. As a harsh reality it is to say that if the Anastasiadis Government received the place with surpluses as received by the AKEL and Christofias government, you can be sure that the place would continue to prosper. If Mr. Christofias and AKEL handed over the government as they received it, not only would we not have problems in the financial system and the economy, but Cyprus would really live in moments like in 2008, as a model of economic development, social prosperity, wealth and in general prosperity. Cyprus would be what we knew.
- That is, AKEL is solely responsible?
- Unfortunately, the AKEL government changed the form not only of the structures of the economy and society in the way it managed them, but the form of the whole of Cyprus as we knew it. It turned it from a model country into the economy into a country that was a model of a government that essentially destroyed the economic structures but much more the welfare state. So, it is the Government of Nikos Anastasiadis that received the heavy winter and we are making efforts to bring back to this place the smile, the spring and the prosperity. It is not easy to take over the government not only with empty funds but also with indebted ones and not with a few millions but with billions. It is not easy to get an economy that has gone bankrupt mathematically.
If the Christofias government continued, the people should know what the price would be and what the other side would be. Bankruptcy would be inevitable. The Christofias government not only did not sign the memorandum but essentially led the country with mathematical precision to final and irreversible bankruptcy. After he would say "no" to everything and leave the place, he would go bankrupt and probably the slogan would be maintained, that is, that everything is the fault of the foreigners and not the Christofias government.
- Your assessment is that the Anastasiadis Government has improved things?
- Yes. He managed in a short time the first and most important achievement which was to eliminate the risk of bankruptcy. To take Cyprus out of certain bankruptcy and save it, as it was saved, at a very heavy price, with tough decisions by the Eurogroup, such as the haircut. But between a final and irreversible bankruptcy that would leave room for poverty, misery and misery for the next 50 years and the situation we are experiencing today, I do not think anyone would choose even this difficult and tragic situation.
Secondly, the government of Nikos Anastasiadis tried to save what is being saved from the financial sector. One sector was found to be indebted with 10 billion euros ELA.
Third and most important, with its new decision, the Government of Nikos Anastasiadis managed to save the depositors of the Co-operation and the Co-operation in practice and not with slogans. Giving 1,5 billion euros, the Cooperative is recapitalized and can once again become a force that plays a social, economic and multifaceted role in the country.
Fourth, it took over a state with black holes and relentless deficits with unbridled waste and reckless spending for five years. The new government managed in a short time to cut millions in spending and put the state on a tidy trajectory.
Fifth, the government of Nikos Anastasiadis managed in a short period of time to end the tens of millions of fat bonuses to foreigners and the royal privileges to the Turkish Cypriots.
The Government managed the welfare state which received it weakened without money to restructure it and to institutionalize the minimum guaranteed income for the last Cypriot citizen if and if this citizen is proven to have no income.
This government managed in a short time to give a strong blow to the counterproductive bureaucratic Cypriot state by promoting investments and development projects which were on fire from the outside. Such as setting up a casino, such as major energy projects such as a gas liquefaction station. The most important thing is that the government within 5-6 months manages day by day to bring hope and perspective back to the place.
An important step that the Bank of Cyprus came out of the consolidation
- Has the banking sector been saved or will we have other surprises in the future? The average citizen fears that we have not reached the point where the recovery can begin and that other unpleasant ones may arise.
- I believe that the Europeans have also understood that this unprecedented thing that happened in Cyprus can not happen again. It can be done in any other country that was not done, but certainly in a country where these policies have already been implemented it cannot be repeated. They themselves assure that it will not happen again.
The data and assurances we have before us essentially lead to the exclusion of similar haircuts in the Cypriot economy. So we are in the consolidation phase and it is an important achievement because the Bank of Cyprus managed to successfully exit the consolidation. The banking sector and the economy had and still have Bank of Cyprus as its flagship. I believe that the Bank of Cyprus must and can stand on its own two feet and play a role for the good of the economy and for the good of society. I believe that the Bank of Cyprus also went through difficult times. The rest of the banking and co-operative sector has entered a phase of real consolidation. Where there were serious problems that were hidden until now, and there was a risk of exploding this big atomic bomb called overdue loans or other distortions, they are currently under control.
Cyprus, as a financial sector, can be trusted both internally and externally. Large reliable foreign publications began to record that in Cyprus there is great progress in the financial sector and the country is regaining its trust and credibility. This message must also go out. That is, our banks and the Bank of Cyprus have been consolidated, to the extent that they have a capital adequacy ratio higher than the European Union average. I will call on the Cypriot citizens to trust their financial sector. When foreigners began to trust him, let alone Cypriot society. When the state helped the Co-operation and took money and put it to recapitalize, it proves the determination of the political system to support our financial system in every way and means.
This is where the EU itself is judged and I believe it would like to be judged positively. Therefore, there will be concern from Europe to put the banking system and the Cypriot economy on their feet.
The responsibilities of the bankers and the Central Bank are enormous
- When we talk about consolidation, some people limit it to the figures, but it also means a healthy way of operating the financial system. Because in all the other things we experienced during these months, we saw that our banking system could be anything but healthy.
- It is known that the political system has nothing to do with the management and supervision of the banking system. Banks and the financial sector are independent public companies that had their shareholders and boards. Those in charge of auditing banking institutions were the supervisory authorities. In the last five years, there have been black holes in the supervision of the banking system and there are huge responsibilities from the central bankers and the bankers themselves. Those who essentially managed and had the trust of shareholders, depositors and generally all those who revolved around the banking system.
We demand and call on the supervisory authorities to be ruthless towards the banking system and towards anyone who in various ways tries to either mislead or exploit the banking sector for selfish motives and criteria for their own benefit. The supervisory authorities must play the role they have, both in the Constitution and in the legislation, which give them unlimited powers to exercise unlimited control and the supervision must be tough on these issues. There is no room and luxury to repeat even the small infinitesimal mistakes that led to this tragic situation where the Cypriot citizen is now called upon to pay huge mistakes and omissions of bankers, supervisors and the previous government.
Responsibilities must be assigned where they should be
- How do you answer the accusation that the politicians are also responsible for everything that has happened because in their way they supported the actions and decisions of the bankers?
- People should know the following: those companies that are on the Stock Exchange and are public companies, have their own supervisory authorities, which are the Central Bank, the CSE, the Capital Market, internal and external auditors. We are talking about people with recognized professional qualifications. Any politician who criticizes or makes a statement about a company that is listed on the stock exchange is subject to criminal liability. So people need to know that the responsibility of public companies that are on the stock exchange lies with the shareholders, the boards of directors and the senior executives and generally the senior leadership. There may have been indirect responsibility from the state as well. But responsibilities that are essentially in specific supervisory authorities cannot all be passed on to politicians. Consider the transfer of responsibilities for issues that have to do with the private sector or with areas that the political system could not touch. Politicians intervened when there was a problem so they could save what could be saved. Mistakes were made. The first to throw the stone valet from the banks and from the state and from the supervisory authorities. But those of Caesar of Caesar. Responsibilities must be assigned where they should be. In order for the banks to get here where they arrived, the responsibility lies primarily with all those who were in the administrations, that is, the bankers but also the supervisory authorities. People should know that the management of the banks was elected by the shareholders themselves. There was no, but no political intervention. Politicians to assume their responsibilities where and when there are responsibilities in terms of political management. But it would be unfair to burden them with responsibilities where they belong to others who have real responsibility.
- You are also a recipient of requests from citizens who ask for help in order to deal with the problems that plague them due to the financial situation. What else can the state, which we know is not financially sound, offer to Cypriot society in order to be able to respond as much as it would like?
- It would be naive to believe that DISY and the Government of Nikos Anastasiadis if they had the opportunity to offer and support all groups of the population would not do so. Let me just remind you that during Clerides' rule, the greatest social benefits and social benefits were given. There was a welfare state that also touched the last social group. Unfortunately we received empty welfare state funds. There was not a single cent for social welfare. There were only debts. And we were called to rebuild the welfare state.
The current government is trying to rebuild the welfare state virtually without money. Nevertheless, he came up with a radical proposal to institutionalize a guaranteed minimum income. For the first time, there will not be a Cypriot citizen who does not have even a small welfare income from the state itself. There will not be a Cypriot citizen who for any reason either will not receive an income or a pension that does not reach the welfare hand of the Government of Nikos Anastasiadis. I believe that it is a revolutionary measure applied for the first time in our country and probably in EU countries, which proves the social and human face of the government of Nikos Anastasiadis who, with limited resources, is called upon in a difficult period when social problems have increased, to face up.
At the moment the first ones are affected and we all have to support them are the unemployed. It is horrible, it is nightmarish to have families who do not get even a salary at home. There must be provision so that there is even one employee in each house. That is, if the state tries to create new jobs and jobs, the main goal must first be to have at least one salary in each house.
The second task is that every unemployed person should get a minimum income until he finds a job. Thirdly, every unemployed person should receive free medical care and reduced electricity and even be excluded from the power outage. With these measures we will alleviate the problem in the most sensitive and in the most difficult category of our fellow citizens who went through the dark circle of unemployment. It is not just incentives to subsidize unemployment, incentives must also be given to employment.
Source: FILELEFTHEROS