The devaluation of politics and policies and especially of the House of Representatives by the citizens, referred to the Speaker of the House Adamos Adamou in an interview with KYPE, expressing the view that the House has an obligation to raise its level.
As Mr. Adamou clarified immediately after the start of the interview, he does not like words, but deeds. He accepted, as he mentioned, the position of the Speaker of the Parliament last October in order to carry out specific things.
"When I accepted to take on this heavy burden, under the circumstances that took place for the short period of about seven months, it was because I had in mind to clarify some things," he said.
Among them, as he said, the publication of the list of Giorkatzi and the code of ethics of the MPs that have been completed and some other bills, such as the one for the establishment of the Independent Authority Against Dispute and for whistleblowing. As he said, these are expected to end if not by the end of his term, certainly with the first Plenary Session of the new House of Representatives.
Mr. Adamou expressed the view that the Parliament has an obligation to raise its level. He referred to the general devaluation of politics and policies that is evident in all polls, while as he said in the assessment of the people, the Parliament is last or penultimate.
"These things do not honor us. "Of course, we are responsible for increasing this percentage of our acceptance by the people, with our actions and our action as a House of Representatives, in order to be able to raise even a little the level of parliamentarism in our country", he said.
Regarding the goals he set for the passage of bills such as that of the Independent Authority against Corruption or the code of ethics of the deputies, Mr. Adamou said that it is not enough just to vote and you must implement.
"The Code of Conduct has been passed and will be implemented. It is a very strict code, which puts things in their place and no one will be out of control when they break the rules of operation of Parliament and Parliamentarism. "He should know that it will have the appropriate consequences and the consequences based on the code are not funny," he noted. Like that for someone who wants to make a political career, it will be a burden if it is written in the stores for violations of the rules of conduct of the deputies and he will know that what he is going to do has a cost.
Expressing his satisfaction for the adoption of the code of conduct, he stated that he also puts pressure on the Chairmen of the Committees to complete the rest, which he wishes to be completed by the end of his term.
The goal, as Mr. Adamou said, is for the new Speaker of the Parliament, who will emerge from the May elections, "to be able to walk in legally secured procedures so that this disrepute that the people have for the Parliament does not hang over the Parliament".
In independent auditors the control of the Giorkatzi list
Mr. Adamou also referred to the next steps after the publication of the Giorkatzi list. As he said, publicity was an imperative of society, since "you can not leave this list in your drawer and let people imply a lot of things."
He also noted that as it was mentioned before the publication, the list of Giorkatzi is rough, has gaps and inaccuracies and is a long list.
Noting that the publication of the list did not bring to light any privileged treatment of Politically Exposed Persons, Mr. Adamou agreed and said that there are other issues and other lists and it is the intention of the competent Commission to make them public, but also to entrust its control. Giorkatzi list to external auditors, since it is not right for MPs to control their colleagues. As he said, the work of the competent Committee of the Parliament has not ended with the publication and the intention of the Committee is to continue its work.
At the same time, Mr. Adamou noted that cleansing is necessary at all levels.
"We need a cleansing at all levels. Let's start with the legislature and then slowly they have to clean up a lot of things that are tormenting our country. "It is not only in Parliament that everything that happens is done, it is also in a wide range of our society", he noted. He added that "our behaviors should have a kindness on them, not to be the thief of the thief and the predator of the predator".
He added that Cyprus has made a name for itself abroad and is pointed to with the list of Non-Performing Loans and passports. "We have become resilient and we must restore the image of the institution, but mainly the image of our country abroad and our EU partners," he said.
As he said, while the issue of passports started as a supportive investment act in order to breathe the place from the abyss we were in, we did not manage it properly with the result that the illegalities invaded, which were seen by everyone "and makes me personally ashamed ».
Unanswered questions on the issue of the state budget
Asked about the lessons learned after the recent "adventure" for the approval of the 2021 budget, Mr. Adamou expressed the view that there are some ambiguities and unanswered questions about what could happen next. As he explained, after the exhaustion of the two twelfths, nothing is provided.
"So if nothing is provided, who resigns, who leaves? The Government, the Parliament? Who leaves in order to solve the impasse in which we would have found ourselves if there was a second twelfth and at the end of the second twelfth you did not find them? "What would we do?" He wondered.
Mr. Adamou said that maybe it should be considered and then whether there should be other safeguards after the second twelfth on how we handle things to avoid extortionate dilemmas for which, as he said, there is still no clear answer.
Reiterating what he had said was that if he were judged by the vote to approve the budget, he would vote in favor, expressing the view that the budget should not be used to claim issues that are heard and seem unrelated to the budget. He said, however, that it is an inalienable right of the parties and groups represented in Parliament to set certain criteria to vote for him.
Commenting on the events that preceded the final vote on the budget, he said that these are a bell that any government in power must come to an agreement beforehand with the parliamentary parties that will vote on the budget. He added that if this had happened in advance we might not have gotten where we came from.
At the same time, he expressed the view that in addition to the criticism that should be made of the budgets brought by each state, it is "somewhat dangerous" to leave the state without budgets, to leave a lot of people unpaid, the state's obligations unpaid, with the risk of being offended. whole, not only the Government, but the Republic of Cyprus. He could very well, as he said, in the Committee of Finance to bring down these issues, to give answers there, to make the changes there in advance and not afterwards.
Pandemic and constitutional rights
Asked whether the Government's decrees on the pandemic should be passed by Parliament, Mr. Adamou said that certain MPs asked for the decrees issued by the Government to pass through Parliament first, which he said would require a time-consuming process. He said, however, that here we were dealing with a pandemic that cost human lives. "I do not want anyone to forget this thing," he said.
"Legally, this position can be justified and justified to come and get the approval of the Parliament in advance before making the decree. On the other hand, tell me how you would justify the continuous loss of life, when you did not take the measures we have taken, as a result of which we are in a very good position today and not only in the pandemic numbers, but also in the number of vaccinated and "We are high on the EU list in protecting our population from the pandemic," he said.
He added that if the approval from the Parliament were applied, these things would not become a reality, although legally those who raise it may be right. "When you cut and deprive individual freedoms in a democracy," he said, "you are somehow illegal."
He also noted that when the measures were implemented in the initial stage of the pandemic, the people accepted them, but then the people got tired and the fatigue of the people must be taken into account. The effort, he added, must be "coordinated and slowly, to open the various areas of social life, the life of citizens in our country, in order to reach a tolerable, manageable level that we can handle, so that do not miss us ".
"Whatever you think, you must put up with the fact that this pandemic is killing people, killing people," he said, adding that it is the responsibility of the state to take such measures to protect the citizen, the population with full understanding for the fatigue of citizens and expressing the view that their constitutional rights are being violated.
He also expressed optimism about the course of the pandemic and said that we will be in a very good position in June, when a very large number of our compatriots will be vaccinated.
He welcomed the release of the vaccine, but said that as a doctor he also had questions about how long the vaccine would last for those who did it or how many doses would be needed or if it would cover mutations in the virus. That said, de facto and because of the short development time of vaccines they may not have answers.
"There are unanswered questions. "But these can not stop us from proceeding with mass vaccination of the population because it is the only way to deal with the pandemic," he said.
"I leave politics with my head held high"
Mr. Adamou was asked about the stigma of his political tenure all these years from the position of both the Speaker of Parliament and the Member of Parliament and MEP.
"For me, my entire career in politics had the same focus as my scientific and medical capacity: The human being. "I tried to serve the man," he said.
In the field of medicine, he noted "I think I have served him well and conscientiously", in the field of politics as he said which is a completely different subject "I did what I could". And in politics, as he said, there are treatments, "except that they are not medical treatments, they are other types of treatments which I cannot suggest".
However, as he said, "I have completed my cycles and I think I am leaving politics with my head held high."