WILL Monday’s meeting with the two leaders turn out to be Maria Angela Holguin’s last dance, despite the optimism she has been expressing recently?

If the two leaders fail to agree on the discounted package of CBMs, kindly reduced by the UN from seven to two as a requirement for the process to move to the next impasse, it will be arrivederci Kyproulla for Holguin.

There must be an indication, however, that Tufan and Nikos will agree on the four crossings and quite possibly on the de-mining. And she said after her meeting with each leader that she was optimistic.

“I hope I am not the only optimistic person on the island,” she said after seeing Tufan on Monday. Our very own Prezniktwo regularly does a Cyprob optimism sales pitch forecasting positive developments and important announcements, but it is part of his chosen role as the messenger of good tidings.

He has got his forecasts wrong so often, nobody with a half a brain believes them.

HOLGUIN said something else that, under normal circumstances, would have sparked calls for her immediate sacking, but it appears our foreign ministry watchdogs and the bash-patriotic hacks were all asleep.

Leaving Erhurman’s office she referred to the internationally recognised republic, member of the EU and UN, regional strategic power and ally of the US as the “south of Cyprus”. She could claim she was speaking geographically, when she stated, “as I said the other day in the south of Cyprus,” but we are far too narrow-minded to believe that.

It was clearly an intention to downgrade the Republic, to put it on the same level as the unrecognised north, but nobody seemed to mind. The next day she staged a bigger provocation – she met Turkey’s pseudo-ambassador in his office in north Nicosia. And the Turks posted a picture of the meeting on social media in an attempt to piss us off.

There was a subdued reaction from the government which expressed ‘discomfort’ and nothing else. Are we losing our desire for the struggle?

THE PRESIDENTIAL palace had a different plan for dealing with Holguin. On Tuesday, the palace’s mouthpiece Phil, reported that the personal envoy “began looking for an exit”.

The report said: “Her moves, even before arriving in Cyprus, showed that she is attempting to disengage from the Cyprob without being tarnished, without being burdened with any responsibility. This is why she attempted putting out the message that the continuing deadlock was the fault of the two leaders.”

This was the reason she finally decided to meet the Famagusta mayor whose requests for a meeting she had been ignoring for a year, the writer concluded. And in order not to exit with a tarnished reputation she also agreed to meet the Morphou mayor and councilors.

Predictably, the Kyrenia mayor felt excluded and also demanded a meeting with Holguin, who he said was treating Kyrenians as second-class refugees.

SPEAKING of Famagusta, I heard that the delegation, consisting of the mayor and councilors that visited the presidential palace a couple of weeks ago, were strongly rebuked by the Prez, straight after welcoming smiles and handshakes.

As soon as the door was closed the Prez started shouting at the delegation for their failure to publicly praise his proposal for the handing over of the fenced city to the UN and the placing of the port under the supervision of the European Commission. He was very disappointed that they were not organising mass demonstrations in support of his proposal, which was for their benefit, he told them.

He clearly did not hold a grudge for their lack of support. The Prez revealed that, after hearing the complaint of the Varoshiotes, he had encouraged heartless Holguin to respond positively to their request for a meeting and that of the Morphites.

VICTORAS Papadopoulos, palace heavy, issued a statement on Friday in which he was not attacking anyone but instead praising his boss for all the wonderful things he had done in his handling of the Cyprob.

What was even more important was that all these initiatives and proposals lead nowhere, although Victoras avoided mentioning this.

He had to bring up Famagusta. He said the president’s proposals for “the handing over of the fenced area of Famagusta to the UN and the opening of the town’s port under the supervision of the European Commission are under discussion.”

This was a blatant lie. The Prez himself said Erhurman rejected his idea for Varosha and if he rejected it, how could it be under discussion. Victoras probably heard his boss misleadingly claim that his Famagusta proposal, despite being rejected was on the table, and assumed it was under discussion.

THE GOVERNMENT has serious issues to manage and will not become involved in the election campaign, despite criticism from the parties about electioneering, said Prezniktwo. Others had embarked on an election campaign, but he would not be lured down this path, he declared resolutely.

A couple of days after this statement, he went on the campaign trail in Paphos. In the morning he visited a private school, then a public school in Emba where he participated in some virtual reality gimmick and a podcast. In the afternoon he visited the Carpentry Factory in Mesogi and then headed to Kili for the inauguration ceremony for the project of the “Beautification of the traditional nucleus of the Kili Community”.

After Kili he was to meet Paphos district vine-growers to discuss their compensation demands after their vines were damaged by Peronospora.

IT MAKES you wonder whether the Prez ever sits in his office and does any actual work. He is always out and about, making speeches, cutting ribbons, inaugurating parks and so on.

On Friday he spent the day in Thessaloniki, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Macedonia and then on Saturday he went on a personal pilgrimage to Mount Athos, presumably for spiritual guidance ahead of Monday’s trilateral meeting.

In his speech at the University of Macedonia, he said among other things: “Our aim is to demonstrate, not through communication but through substance, through specific actions based on a concrete plan and strategy, that the Republic of Cyprus, always within its capabilities, has added value and a role in shaping regional and European developments.”

He did not give any concrete examples of how he is shaping regional and European developments, but he is adding value to them.

YOU HAVE to admire the unwavering and zealous support dear old Phil is giving the Prez. On Monday the paper’s palace mouthpiece wrote a column informing readers that Elam was not so bad and that all the alarmism and phobias directed at it were unjustified.

“Cyprus is not in danger from any legitimate party, and not from Elam, as much as some are trying to cultivate fears and concerns among the public.” Phil has undertaken the whitewashing of Elam, because it is entirely possible that it will be the main party backing Prezniktwo’s re-election.

DEPUTIES on Wednesday tried to establish how the government classified documents as ‘confidential’, ‘secret’ on so forth. The issue was tabled for discussion by Alma deputy Irene Charalambides after the fuss regarding the leak of a ‘classified’ document, containing information about the purchase of an armoured limousine for the president.

It was an embarrassing episode for President Nikos Christodoulides who was caught lying in public, claiming he did not know about the purchase of the €600,000 presidential limousine, although it had been approved by a council of ministers meeting that he chaired. The document authorising the expenditure was leaked by the House although it was marked ‘confidential’.

The government tried to divert public attention away from the lie, by castigating the leaking of the document, while Elam, acting as a pro-government party demanded an investigation. The question nobody answered is why the purchase of limo for the president, and the price, should be treated as a state secret?

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