Nicosia, Cyprus. Direct Democracy Cyprus leader Fidias Panayiotou on Friday defended his party’s decision to vote for Disy leader Annita Demetriou as House president, saying the party chose cooperation over opposition. He said the decision was based on the party’s aim to work with others to address social problems.
Decision to back Demetriou
In a televised interview posted on his social media accounts, Panayiotou said he had received repeated questions about why his party voted for Demetriou.
He said his party’s “philosophy” is “not to be throwing eggs and rocks at the wall” from outside, as he said opposition parties do. He added that he had previously “threw eggs and rocks” as a member of the European Parliament but said he was not being listened to.
Panayiotou said that now his party has entered parliament, it wants to work together to solve society’s problems.
Role as kingmaker
He said Direct Democracy Cyprus had faced a dilemma and held the balance of power in the House president election because other parties had ruled out supporting certain candidates, while his party had said it would work with everyone.
Panayiotou said this made his party the kingmaker and that there were only two candidates who could possibly have been elected: Demetriou and Diko leader Nicholas Papadopoulos.
He said his party met with all parties and presented three proposals, which he described as important and central to its election campaign aimed at solving society’s problems.
Conditions and choice
Panayiotou said that if his party had sided with Papadopoulos, its votes together with those of Diko and Elam would have secured Papadopoulos passage to the second round of the election. He said that, likewise, the votes of his party and Disy would ensure Demetriou’s passage to the second round.
He said that alongside the three policies he had proposed, he demanded “a public video with me to say that you will do those things”, adding that both Demetriou and Papadopoulos agreed to record videos.
Panayiotou said his party ultimately chose Disy “for one large reason” because voters in the recent elections made Disy the first party.
He said, “the electorate chose Annita and Disy to be first, and now, you will wait and we will see if those things are implemented.”
He also said he had “created a video with Annita in which we say those things”.
