Presidential palace seeks to ease dispute between Diko leader and finance minister

Nicosia, Cyprus. The presidential palace sought on Friday to ease a public dispute between Diko leader Nicholas Papadopoulos and Finance Minister Makis Keravnos. A meeting between the two remains possible once President Nikos Christodoulides returns from New York.

Government rejects claim of divided leadership

Speaking to CyBC, deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou rejected the suggestion that there were two feuding power bases within the administration. “There is only one government,” he said, adding that it was bound by cabinet decisions and the president’s will.

Antoniou was responding to Papadopoulos, who called on Christodoulides to clarify the finance minister’s role and asked whether “there are two governments”.

Disagreements extend beyond interconnector

Papadopoulos said the disagreements extended beyond the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) to pensions, provident funds affected by the 2013 haircut, depositors who suffered losses, and state grants to municipalities.

The dispute began on Sunday, when Papadopoulos asked in an interview why Keravnos did not resign if he disagreed with the president’s position on advancing the interconnector. Keravnos said he had no intention of resigning and that the president would decide whether any minister remained in government.

Antoniou acknowledged the disagreements but described them as a “standard facet of political life”. Diko parliamentary spokesman Panicos Leonidou has already sought to ease the tension and is expected to raise the matter with the president when he returns.

Antoniou said he understood that Papadopoulos had been in contact with Christodoulides, but did not disclose details of their conversation.