Health Minister Neophytos Charalambides on Wednesday insisted that his party, Diko, will support President Nikos Christodoulides’ re-election campaign in 2028, pushing back on party leader Nicholas Papadopoulos’ suggestion that the party’s support for Christodoulides in 2028 is not a given.

“Diko has a president of the republic. It is not looking for a candidate,” he told television channel Ant1, before describing Christodoulides as “a president who has recently expanded Diko’s participation in the government with two additional ministers” at his most recent cabinet reshuffle last month.

However, he also stressed that Diko’s support for Christodoulides “is not just a matter of participation or broader participation in the government”.

More important, he said, is that Christodoulides is “a president with whom we have agreed a specific election programme, the contract with all of us, and that is what we correctly call it, with the people, with society”.

“Ministers from Diko and all the government ministers are working daily to implement a programme which is being implemented successfully, I would say, and has allowed us in terms of foreign policy to strengthen the international status of the Republic of Cyprus,” he said.

“On the economy … a prudent fiscal policy has allowed us to have continuous upgrades of the economy, to record strong rates of growth – the highest in the European Union – and a reduction of public debt below 50 per cent [of gross domestic product].”

Regarding his own ministry, he pointed out that the government has allocated €200 million “for the upgrading of public hospitals”.

Asked whether his position on the matter is compatible with that of Papadopoulos, he said that “we are 18 months away from the presidential elections”, and that “I believe at this moment, it is not the time to have such discussions”.

‘I do not know to what extent he is looking elsewhere’

Pressed on the matter, he said that “I do not know to what extent [Papadopoulos] is looking elsewhere”, before saying hat “obviously, there is a discussion within Diko, in which I personally participated yesterday or the day before in Limassol, where we were discussing all the facts”.

“No issue has been raised by anyone about leaving the current government. On the contrary, what is being discussed within Diko is the way to direct cooperation with [Christodoulides] so that there is a better possibility of implementing these commitments which we have undertaken,” he said.

Papadopoulos had said earlier in the week that Diko has begun an “internal party dialogue” on the matter, and that the final decision will be made by the party’s central committee.

Diko supported Christodoulides’ campaign in 2023, while Papadopoulos ran himself in 2018. The party endorsed Disy candidate and eventual election winner Nicos Anastasiades in 2013, while Papadopoulos’ late father Tassos Papadopoulos stood in both the 2008 and 2003 elections while party leader.