Trapped in the whirlwind of 2023

“The truth is, these past few days Mr Neofytou and I have been speaking on the phone once a day.” So said Andreas Mavroyiannis on February 9, 2023, three days before the presidential run-off between himself and Nikos Christodoulides. “Look, let me put it this way,” he told CyBC. “Mr Neofytou and I have some political differences. We go back a long way, we have a relationship, we can talk to each other as friends. I have to tell you that in recent days his behaviour has moved me, and not just his support. His behaviour in general.” This was after Averof Neofytou, running as DISY’s candidate, had been knocked out in the first round. At a stormy political bureau meeting that descended into bullying and shoving, the party decided to give its voters a free vote. Then senior figures tried to steer the rank and file into swallowing hard and voting for AKEL’s candidate, Andreas Mavroyiannis. Not because they judged Christodoulides unfit to govern, or because his positions were far from theirs (to this day he embraces their political and ideological positions!). Out of revenge. Right there with them was the party’s then leader, Averof Neofytou himself, on the phone once a day with the AKEL candidate, who declared himself moved not only by his support but by his behaviour in general. They even drafted in their founder’s daughter, Katie Clerides, who put out a written statement. “Vote for Andreas Mavroyiannis,” she wrote. “He’s squeaky clean, he comes from a family of fighters, he’s a Pitsilia man and, to top it all, a distant relative of Glafcos Clerides.” Such passion! They’d even dug up a distant relation! (It was one of the best jokes of the day.) Three years on, they are still stuck on that ill-matched stage set. A set, of course, that they built themselves and then trapped themselves inside. “It’s a downward slide that just keeps going,” Giorgos Pamborides admitted yesterday, comparing today’s situation with 2023. “We’re doing politics on raw emotion and gut feeling now, as if we were a broken family.” Spot on. Against this backdrop, the bombshell dropped by Averof Neofytou, himself doing politics on raw emotion and gut feeling, might help the volcano let off steam. Having failed for three and a half years to climb calmly out of the 2023 whirlwind, they may now need this rupture to clear the air around them. Naturally, it cannot happen without casualties. They know that. But since, yet again, elections and personal agendas trump everything else, that is probably the least of their worries. Besides, in these three years they never seriously dealt with the drift of senior figures who vanished from the scene after ’23. Nor with the haemorrhage of supporters and voters over their stance on the Cyprus problem , and over their attitude towards Nikos Christodoulides. The same Christodoulides who every so often declares that he is still a DISY man at heart and is implementing their own policies and philosophy on the economy, social affairs and Europe. Now that Averof wants to be elected to implement those same policies, and the party wants to elect Annita to implement those very same policies, DISY voters may well wonder what to go for. Policies or personalities. Because they keep repeating, every one of them, that policies and the homeland come before personalities. Somewhere else, presumably.