President Nikos Christodoulides said on Friday that economic problems are not addressed with superficial proposals, referring to a recommendation made by Akel for taxing bank profits, underlining his readiness to discuss feasible proposals within the framework of fiscal discipline.

Speaking at the conference organised by the Central Bank to promote financial literacy, Christodoulides said that “we are in a pre-election period and similar statements sound very nice to people’s ears”.

“However, at the same time, we must respect the society that listens to us,” he said.

“These fruitless statements I’ve been hearing in recent days, in the end, belittle the Cypriot people themselves.

“Problems are not addressed with such superficial proposals,” he added.

He mentioned hearing many suggestions, “as if for so many years there were no governments led by leaders of parties or former leaders of parties who did not make these decisions.”

He pointed out that he knows the political landscape very well.

“At the same time, we must respect, first and foremost, the Cypriot people.”

He also said that it is only through a holistic approach, income policy, wage increases, and a comprehensive approach to the energy issue that economic problems will be addressed.

He then reiterated that he is willing to extend “a hand of cooperation” to everyone.

“Whoever has proposals, suggestions, feasible ones, I am ready to discuss them, always within the framework of fiscal discipline.

“This country suffered enough from populist approaches and policies,” he concluded.