Former negotiator and ambassador Andreas Mavroyiannis meets all of opposition Akel’s requirements to foment change in Cyprus, the party’s general-secretary Stefanos Stefanou said on Sunday.

Stefanou was speaking during a party conference for rural members, held in Larnaca.
“The country needs progressive change that will end the downward spiral and put an end to deadlocks,” he said.

“Under the current rulers, Cyprus is considered a country that launders dirty money and is a haven for fraudsters.”

Ruling Disy, he added, lacked credibility on the Cyprus issue and on other issues such as the golden passports.

“Disy and the government have degraded the rule of law and the welfare state and have taken us back to times of unprecedented authoritarianism,” he said.

The first major impasse was on the Cyprus issue at a time when Turkey was more provocative than ever, and was using the current deadlock to to strengthen the division on the ground.

The Greek Cypriot side’s narrative about the situation in the Cyprus issue has collapsed and “unfortunately the Greek Cypriot side does not have credibility internationally and therefore is not convincing about its narratives,” Stafanou added.

Mavroyiannis was the Cyprus negotiator during the failed 2017 Cyprus talks in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

Stefanou said the government was also not on top of the the issue of inflation. Even before the Ukraine war, he said Akel had asked for measures to be taken and for policies to be implemented to protect workers and vulnerable groups.

“They told us not to worry and the phenomenon is temporary. But the phenomenon is not temporary,” Stefanou said, adding that the government was only interested in creating impressions about what how generous it is “which is not true”.

“It does not rely on real data but at the same time does not meet the real needs of the citizens”.