Letter to the Editor
The presidential elections are over and AKEL party leader Dimitris Christofias was elected president of Cyprus thanks to the support he received from Papadopoulos’s party, DIKO, and the Socialist Party, EDEK. In the past there have been several alliances between DIKO and AKEL for the main purpose of electing the then DIKO party leader as president of Cyprus. In the 2008 presidential elections the roles were reversed, with DIKO supporting AKEL. This partnership was eventually dissolved because of differences in party ideology, programs and goals. The question now is: Will the present AKEL-DIKO alliance prove to be more durable than the previous ones? Or is the present partnership simply a marriage of convenience to get Christofias elected and secure some ministerial posts for DIKO members? One can only give the benefit of the doubt to President-elect Christofias, and wish him good luck in tackling the main problem, that is, resolving the Cyprus problem. The two previous presidents and party leaders, Glafkos Clerides (DISY) and Tassos Papadopoulos (DIKO), failed. Will AKEL’s Christofias succeed where others failed? What approach will he adopt that is different to previous ones? In my own estimate, unless both parties to the problem change their mind-set, I am not very optimistic that a solution will be forthcoming and the end result will be real partition instead of the present de facto one. The Cyprus situation reminds me of a line in Shakespeare’s «Julius Caesar,» Act I, Scene II: «The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings….» The waving of red flags to celebrate Christofias’s victory was a one-day affair, and now let us hope that one day soon flags will be waving to celebrate the reunification of Cyprus. ANDONIOS NEROULIAS, New York, USA.
