After a sharply criticised protest on Sunday the hunters’ association (KEKK) said they were satisfied after their meeting with Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou on Monday afternoon.

KEKK-head Nicholas Prodromou said that following the intervention of President Nikos Christodoulides some of their issues had been put on track and announced there would be new developments soon. They are also to meet with the Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou next week.

“We did not blackmail anyone and no president acted under blackmail threats,” he said, responding to criticism that KEKK had pressured the government with intimidating protest practices.

Around 2,000 hunters blocked all four lanes of the highway near Skarinou on Sunday and the protest ended only after President Nikos Christodoulides assured Prodromou of a meeting.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis in a statement on Monday said that Christodoulides had taken the step “in order to de-escalate the situation”, however, this did not mean “that what the hunters are asking for has been accepted or rejected in advance”.

Amongst the KEKK’s demands are stricter building criteria on photovoltaic parks as the hunters say their presence curtails their hunting areas. Prodromou said that that Ioannou had assured them of stricter building criteria. He added that the upcoming meeting with Panayiotou would address concerns regarding fishermen and also the right for hunters to train their dogs in protected Natura 2000 areas. If the hunters’ demands were met, he said, no further protests would take place.

However, he warned that if necessary, their next demonstration would be outside the House of Representatives to “make it realise its responsibilities”.

Prodromou then went on to attack local media which criticised their protest claiming that their coverage wrongly focused on the hunters rather than on their problems.

“Instead of communicating the problems, you loaded us with a bunch of adjectives, and we really thank you,” he said.

Letymbiotis stressed that the government was awaiting further information on the arrangements made between police and the hunters, and why they had not been respected.

Letymbiotis emphasised that it was “‘everyone’s right to go to any street at any time of the day”, while at the same time condemning the Sunday incident.

Earlier on Monday, the hunting federation (KOK & DAZ) had distanced themselves from the KEKK protests noting that it did not agree with “practices that lead to suffering for society as a whole”, stressing that it was not involved in any of the two protests that took place last week.

Instead, the protests were organised “by a political party whose name contains the word ‘hunter’.”

The Cyprus Ecological Movement criticised the protest as “a blatant violation of the law and a direct insult to citizens and the democratic functioning of the state.” While affirming the right to protest as sacred, it stressed that this did not extend to authoritarianism or the violent restriction of others’ rights.

“Instead of acting proactively, the president created a problem and then, unable to handle it, retreated majestically”, leaving the state and its institutions exposed, it said, arguing that Christodoulides could have avoided the protest by meeting with the hunters’ association, which had backed his election, earlier on.

The Animal Party also criticised the protest, taking aim at Christodoulides for what they called an overly tolerant stance. They argued that by agreeing to meet the protesters at the Presidential Palace, he was legitimising their tactics.

The party warned that if any group or party used street protests, roadblocks threatening the government and ultimately succeeding because the president and his administration conceded, this would set a dangerous precedent.

At Sunday’s protest, hunters called for stricter fines against those hunting without permits, describing the situation as “dangerously out of control.” They urged MPs to take action and demanded protection from what they described as the “illegal” practices of activists.

Additionally, they pushed for legislation ensuring that the head of the game fund should be selected from a list of licensed hunters. They also demanded stricter laws with harsher penalties against poaching.
The hunters’ protest disrupted traffic for 1.5 hours on Sunday afternoon as hunters set up barbecues and grilled souvla on the roadside.

This was the second protest in a week, following a similar protest on March 15, when hunters across the island took to the streets with the same demands voiced on Sunday.

Back then, the protesters had issued a statement accused authorities of following a “failed management programme” that had led to the “impoverishment of the game.”

They were also joined by fishermen, who called for a designated fishing zone near the Larnaca district villages of Mari and Zygi.