The only ones who really care are the candidates and the parties… (Newspaper article today's)Today the political system more than ever before seems to be on the margins.
In the political background, everyone is whispering that the municipal elections are the lobby of the Presidential…
The ONLY ones who are really involved (for the time being at least) are the mayoral candidates themselves, Municipal Councilors, School Superintendents, but also the party staffs.
What dominates silently on the road to municipal elections is the icy indifference of the citizens. Cypriots today are completely absorbed in the economic crisis and the new data it brings to their daily lives. The only ones who are really involved (for the time being at least) are the mayoral candidates themselves, Municipal Councilors, School Superintendents, but also the party staffs. It may save the situation that there are many Municipalities and communities and school ephorates. So are the candidates. But this is certainly not enough to mobilize the political system.
And while these are happening in the foreground, in the political background everyone is whispering that the Municipalities are the lobby of the Presidents. From the side of AKEL, they accuse Nikos Anastasiadis and his party of thinking only of the Presidential ones. However, there are also those who suspect Mario Karoyan that… he arranged them to meet hand in hand with AKEL, because he has in mind 2013. However, the same thought is made by DIKO and AKEL for Giannakis Omirou and EDEK, who were in many Municipalities "embrace" with DISY. So, while the parties are talking about local government and the special character of these elections, at the same time they are making plans and alliances.
The couch.
The real protagonist of the elections of December 18 will be the citizens. It has always been so. So it will be now. With the difference that the citizens who will not go to the polls will probably make a difference. Polls suggest (based on today's picture) that a "surprise abstention" will be recorded in next month's election. The background, a month before the election, is bleak.
With unemployment steadily above 7%, with thousands of private-sector workers forced to accept pay cuts and loss of benefits, with thousands of small and medium-sized shopkeepers or craftsmen seeing their turnover fall by 30% and stress padlock to hang like a Damocles sword. But also with public sector employees who are considered "privileged", to be called to face the huge financial demands of the festive season with reduced budget.
Everyone now realizes that the torturous course of the collapse of the Greek state is no longer so distant. On the contrary, the feeling that prevails more and more is that "that's where we go…". Therefore, these seem to be the real anxieties of the citizens and not how many of AKEL or DISY will sit in the municipal council of Aglantzia or Polemidia.
"Nothing is worth it"
Among the citizens, however, there is something else. An intense dissatisfaction with the political system as a whole. After the tragic events of last July, the border procedures of the Finding and the isolation of the President of the Republic, who is stubbornly fortified inside the Presidential Palace with the tolerance of only his party, many are those who have lost "any idea". Seeing, in fact, that after the "crowns" of the debate in Parliament and the opposition parties are slowly getting used to the fact that this will be the new scenario, many are now those who are indignant with the system as a whole.
This attitude, which the party staffs are particularly afraid of, can only be aggravated by what is happening in Greece. The Cypriots expect that in the coming months they will be touched by the measures that are coming even if they are delayed. This dissatisfaction, however, cannot be turned into a vote of confidence in the opposition. Because, although the daily bad mantas in the economy are heard from the mouth of the opposition, they do not see any substantial movement.
However, AKEL is not comfortable with this situation either. Because the first fear in the headquarters of Hezekiah Papaioannou is not that their own voters will go to vote for another party to "punish" Dimitris Christofias. Their fear is that, as happened in the 2004 European elections, the Acelians will stay at home, on their couch.
Stress for the economy.
The situation is much more critical than is officially acknowledged. This week, an official from the Ministry of Finance gave assurances that the Cypriot state has money and that it does not rely exclusively on the large Russian loan. The statements traveled to international news agencies and the comment of foreign observers was simple. "If Cyprus really does not need the Russian loan, then why does it get it?"
In reality, however, the Cypriot state has been in a miserable financial situation for several weeks. Conventional payments are delayed, while many categories of citizens are protesting. Since the news of the new "impairment" to be made by the Cypriot banks, the bazaar has been frozen νώ . But not from the Greek toxic bonds, but from the Cypriot ones. History has shown that this government, with the former Minister of Finance, "grabbed them by the throat" to finance the state, at a time when it could no longer enter the markets…
All this is nailed daily in the mind of the President of the Republic. That is why he tried to "drive out" the hot potato of the freezing of the state salary from his hands, ordering Kikis Kazamias to start intensive consultations with the unions. An opera was done, with the difference that Kikis did not inform either the President or the Government about his decision to announce a package of measures. But apart from the cold shower of Dimitris Christofias, which was "given" to him by his minister, the Union of Civil Servants also had its surprises. When he received the delegation of the Russian embassy, in order to detect… "where things are going" with public finances.
The backdrop of despair and the sawn chairs.
THE SCENE of despair is completed in the worst way by what is heard on the Cyprus front. With no hope of a solution, President Christofias is simply trying to overcome "traps". At the same time, the image of the new Minister of Commerce, who instead of actively pursuing the interests of Cyprus in the major open gas issues, hurried to "liquidate" inside the Ministry and to promise "benefits" to the Turkish side, did not inspire any public confidence.
Today the political system more than ever before seems to be on the margins.
In a country desperate, without the slightest reasonable expectation in the Cyprus issue and with the economy in the intensive, many citizens face the parties and politics with indifference and contempt. The feeling is that they make plans and calculations themselves, and that the only purpose is to "redistribute chairs". Only this time they look… sawn!
Force correlations and collaborations.
IN ALARM, in addition to the "matte movement" in Nicosia, with Konstantinos Giorkatzis, they took care to support the MP and former mayor of Paphos Pheidias Sarikas, aiming to "dethrone" the current mayor Savva Verga. This, however, was considered casus belli by Mario Karoyan, whose very close relationship with the current mayor of Paphos is known. It is also one of the ways in which DIKO justifies the distance from DISY in these elections.
In a similar formation, the two parties will face each other in Larnaca (Louroutziatis-Cleanthous), but also in smaller Municipalities, such as Agios Dometios and Engomi.
From DIKO's side, they want to cover up Karoyan's "strategic preference" for AKEL, saying that "it is not our fault, if in many mayoralties our candidate finds one of DISY against him". From the side of DISY they oppose that "in all the consultations DIKO did not show enough willingness for cooperation".
From the side of AKEL, it is enough to support the DIKO candidates in most Municipalities and to be silent, ignoring the fact that DIKO, together with DISY, are trying to occupy the mayor's office of the capital… By Chrysanthos Tsouroullis