Disy party leader Nicos Anastasiades was elected president in February, ousting Demetris Christofias and opening the way for yet another process on the Cyprus issue, this time, and for a while, with then Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu who was much more hardline than his predecessor Mehmet Ali Talat.

Anastasiades was seen as a moderate having supported the Annan plan, which did not go down well within Disy as a whole. The first months of his presidency were however taken up with the economic crisis and the haircut on bank deposits. Thus, he did not get around to starting a new Cyprus process until October that year. Predictably, nothing came of it.