The results of last Sunday’s parliamentary elections confirm, once again, that in Cyprus we have a deeply conservative society, clinging to its old habits and reacting to any attempt at change. An inertia operates in most social phenomena that is difficult to overturn. In the case of party behavior, the two major traditional parties of the country not only endured and maintained their power but also increased it. The center of gravity of the party map is clearly shifting to the right and indeed with the strengthening of nationalist forces. The three right-wing parties represented in Parliament, ELAM, DISY and the center-right DIKO, have an overwhelming majority of seats over the Left, AKEL and the two other centrist, if you can call them that, parties. Therefore, the political game is in the hands of the Right and in the dependency relationships of the parties that make it up.
Although the opinion polls showed a reversal of the usual political scene with the two major parties shrinking, the election results did not show this. This is largely due to two main reasons: First, the two big organized poles of our political life put into operation in the last weeks before the elections their powerful party mechanisms and collected all their votes, including those that would have gone to the smaller parties, EDEK, Ecologists, DIPA, or to newly formed political formations. The mobilization of the mechanisms that are the core of the client relations of the big ones brought the known results, the small ones were left out of the Parliament and this is a blow to the Democracy because if they entered the Parliament they could contribute with progressive and reforming ideas. Secondly, the voters were faced with a dilemma that PtB put as a refrain in all its statements: Do you want the toxicity, the division, the nihilism, the misery and the destruction of the institutions or the seriousness, the security, the enshrinement of what we have managed to achieve? This argumentation worked and a significant part of the people is not represented in Parliament.
The most important political message of these elections is the complete normalization of ELAM, which is treated according to the number of its parliamentary seats and not according to its positions which conflict with all human rights. Now it is a party of the broader Right. With immigration at the top of his priorities as a cutting edge issue and exploiting the religiosity of the common people he managed to win votes easily. Of course, the immigration policy of President Christodoulides and his generally friendly attitude towards the far-right party also helped in this.
ELAM, which is the big winner of the elections, is firmly establishing itself as a third political pole and now it is already too late to deal with it. We didn’t learn the lesson from the Greek Prime Minister who sent “Golden Dawn” to prison to do the same when they first appeared with beatings and vandalism. What counts now are his eight MPs and not his inhuman positions. Don’t be fooled by the fact that they changed methods, took off the black uniforms, don’t beat people up, don’t use violence. Their sick beliefs are always the same. They may lie and deny their criminal past, but the facts remain and are undeniable. All the other parties must isolate them, not cooperating with them on any issue, especially for the presidency of the Parliament. Any cooperation with them gives them substance and strengthens them.
The results of the elections also change the conditions for the 2028 presidential elections. The total loss of the electoral power of the parties that make up the governing coalition amounts to 8% of the total. This, combined with the fact that DISY is currently the leading political force, with a percentage of over 27%, create a new scenario and other data and it will hardly decide not to have its own candidate.