Controversial MP candidate to remain on Green party ballot  

Green MP candidate Michalis Paraskevas will remain in the ballot for the upcoming parliamentary elections despite him insulting a female minister on social media, the party has confirmed to the Cyprus Mail.

The party said they kept the lawyer on the ballot with expulsion suspended and terms to be determined at a later stage.

“If he proceeds in any other indecent action he will be expelled from the party immediately,” said party’s leader Charalambos Theopemptou.

The decision came after Paraskevas apologised to the justice minister Emily Yiolitis for his tweet on March 15 in which he called her names among other things.
“I admit that it contained indecent expressions and I withdraw it,” Paraskevas said on Tuesday.

But other Green MP candidates argued that he was damaging the reputation of the party, with two withdrawing their candidacy over the last few days.

“I do not agree with the actions of Mr Paraskevas, it is one thing to criticise and another to insult,” three MP candidates told the Cyprus Mail on condition of anonymity.

Two Limassol-based Green MP candidates, Melanie Steliou Nicolaou and Alkis Papis withdrew their candidacy following the incident.

“As a woman who has suffered sexist and verbal bullying multiple times for positions, I may have expressed in public…I do not adopt and condemn this behaviour,” Nicolaou wrote on her social media a day after Paraskevas’ statements.

“There comes a point where you feel like saying shut up you w***er, f***ing society within this shithole of a place. Everyone is talking through their arse, nowadays,” Paraskevas had tweeted citing Yiolitis’ comments after Limassolians hosted a carnival party despite the pandemic.

MP candidates who decided to stay in the party expressed hope that “people will see that there are worthy, capable and moral people on the Green Party ballot and will make the appropriate choice.”