The announcement of the pan-Cypriot electoral and ideological congress of DISY does not necessarily mean that the party will decide on its candidate in the Presidential elections of '23 from the podium of the congress. It is clear that the candidate selection process is completely different. In essence, a conference process is expected to arm the party candidate to incorporate the fresh elements of a new ideological orientation of DISY in its pre-election commitments and program of the presidential candidate. The size and how the change or modernization of the party will be measured on the decisions, all this will be seen in a few months from now and if finally the current president of the party will “break the walls of Pindar” as he stated indicatively and will place the party on the rails on which society moves today.
The priority
The DISY political ideological conference is obviously the second act of a party process in the near future. The choice of a party candidate for the presidential elections is on the agenda as a priority. In fact, Averof Neophytou, in the form of an indirect challenge to all those who believe that they could claim through the party organs and not in a wider process, candidacy for the presidency, can do so on the basis of the party's practice as was done repeatedly. in the party past. However, the President could not say anything different to DISY, although he has taken care in the middle of his practice in the last two months to create all those conditions so that it “appears” since formally there is no decision, that he is the one who will take the party presidential anointing. The intensity with which Averof Neophytou moves with planned steps of a presidential candidate, is unprecedented and leaves no room for another interpretation. He clarifies from the beginning, although he does not say it publicly, that since the “party will have its own candidate” then there is potentially no one who will challenge his candidacy. The President of the Democratic Alarm is certainly moving not only in the axis of consolidating his own candidacy, which is institutionally covered by being the leader of the faction. It is clear that at the same time he is gradually trying to negotiate his own candidacy with other political parties before the selection process is completed. He is trying to win over his future allies in order to ultimately strengthen his own candidacy, thus preventing any surprise from a possible differentiation of internal data with another candidacy.
The big dilemma
Averof Neophytou based on his moves so far it is obvious that he will expect a clarification of his potential allies before proceeding with the announcement of his candidacy. He does not seem to be in a hurry. At the same time, this lack of haste is its weak point. How much time will he have at his disposal to prepare? Does the prolonged postponement of his candidacy make him exposed to a possible other candidacy from the area of the ruling party to which he “gives” the scope of time to address the same forces to which the President of DISY is addressing today? On the other hand, maybe this attitude of Averof Neophytos, not to be in a hurry, is also a rational evaluation of the data that there could be another candidacy from the ruling party that can influence his potential allies more productively than that his own candidacy? Obviously, such a development would be avoided, but the leader of DISY is not the politician who will never abandon his own rationality when and if any developments create new data. All this does not lead to the safe conclusion that a process of agreement between Averof Neophytou is underway, at least with DIKO, and only the official party decisions are expected.
No wish lists
As party sources reported in “P”, “alliances are not made with the wishes or wishes of the one who would like the strengthening of his own candidacy”. In this direction the field is clear. Any alliance, at the level of political forces, of course, but not of the majority current, at this stage can be said to not have a specific form. The party background saw but also insists that through discreet consultations, a possible reduction of DISY's positions and views is recorded with the views of at least part of the DIKO leadership. This is disputed by DIKO executives who insist that this is an early literature which has more to do with the party's political shift towards the wider practices of the government. Most estimates converge on the fact that the adjustment of DIKO's opposition practice to a milder form in relation to what society experienced in the run-up to the parliamentary elections, created the impression that the party is ready to “give in completely and unconditionally to Avero Neophytou “so as not to lose the train of power again. This impression was reinforced by the repeated statement of Nikolas Papadopoulos that their party “will participate in the next government” while the messages coming here and there from DIKO and DIPA that the participation is not a remote event, under certain conditions, gain special weight. of the two political formations in a joint future government. If all these are just conclusions through the flowing party mobility or part of a serious reflection, only what is approaching the internal party processes will be revealed.
Multifaceted contacts
This pending contact is not unambiguous. As “P” realizes, the front of communication is also open to the gates of the center-left. AKEL and DIKO do not seem, despite the information that has come to light, to go through periods of distancing and lack of communication between them on the issues of the presidential elections. As it is noted, at least from AKEL executives there is a better communication despite the great weight that was created in the relations between the two parties after the vote in the parliament for the election of the new President of the body. At AKEL, of course, they insist that no decision has been made on how they will handle – in the background – at this juncture, their consultations with their potential partners. However, the party executives do not seem to be vertical in terms of the possibility of finding, with mutual compromises, the golden section for cooperation of the political forces of the center-left. As some of the acelite executives said meaningfully in “P”, “it is a rule for us that political goals are delimited based on the existing conditions and the realistic evaluations of the data”. If this approach is valid, it is clear that the necessary compromise can be reached to achieve the main goal of the opposition, which is to change the governance of the country. Not only the face but also the long-standing policy of DISY in power.
