Eleftheria Paizanou
Most of the 56 newly elected MPs, who will give the legalized assurance to the Constitution on Thursday, are lawyers, salaried party executives and economists.
These are professions that they have practiced so far, but they will probably continue to practice. Due to the fact that in Cyprus there are no restrictions, with the exception of the sectors of public service, education and media, many of the new MPs will continue to engage in their professional activities, in parallel with the duties of MP.
Based on the CVs of the new MPs, “F” grouped their professions. Of the 56 deputies, eleven are legal (19.6%), which means, so to speak, that no legal and constitutional errors will be made in the legislation that will be voted in the new Parliament. Although there have always been many lawyers in Parliament, without even avoiding glaring mistakes of a legal nature.
It is worth noting that a law degree is held by a much larger number of MPs, however, eleven are those who practice or have practiced the profession for some time.
The lawyers of the new Parliament are:
– Nikos Tornaritis, Fotini Tsiridou and Nikos Georgiou, from DISY. From AKEL lawyers are Aristos Damianou and Andreas Passiourtidis. From DIKO are Nikolas Papadopoulos, Christiana Erotokritou, Panikos Leonidou, Christos Senekis and Zacharias Koulias and from EDEK Kostis Efstathiou.
At the same time, eleven other MPs, although holding degrees in various fields, until recently worked as mercenaries in the parties. Some of them were parliamentary associates or advisers to the President. They are Stefanos Stefanou, George Loukaidis, Christos Christofidis, George Koukoumas and Christos Christofias from AKEL. Andreas Apostolou, of EDEK today, was a parliamentary associate of the Citizens' Alliance, Michalis Giakoumi was a parliamentary associate at DIKO and then worked as a consultant to the President, while Sotiris Ioannou is the deputy spokesman of ELAM.
Many economists
There is also a large number of MPs dealing with finance, marketing and accounting. Among others are Haris Georgiadis, Savia Orfanidou, Nikos Sykas, Onoufrios Koullas and Charalambos Pazaros, from DISY. Chrysanthos Savvidis from DIKO and Elias Myrianthous of EDEK are also in the same professional space.
As almost all parliaments have their journalists, so there are four in the Cypriot Parliament. They are Irini Charalambidou and Nikos Kettiros from AKEL, Efthimios Diplaros from DISY and Pavlos Mylonas from DIKO.
The teachers
According to the biographical notes of the members of the new Parliament, four deputies are teachers. These are Giannakis Gabriel of AKEL, who worked as a professor in the field of Carpentry-Furniture. The teachers representing DISY in Parliament are Prodromos Alampritis, who until recently worked as a teacher in Primary Education and George Karoulas, who taught Geography Teaching at the Department of Educational Sciences of the University of Cyprus. Also, Andreas Themistokleous of ELAM, before being elected MP (originally of DISY), was a mathematician.
The doctor and the radiologist
At the same time, other MPs work as civil scientists, insurers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, while there are those who worked in semi-governmental organizations and in the Local Government, in the real estate sector, as well as in their private companies. In the Cypriot Parliament are two academics and a doctor, a radiologist, as well as a former police officer, a former Deputy Chief and Spokesperson of the European Parliament Office in Cyprus (Alexandra Attalidou).
The previous Parliament
It is worth noting that in the previous Parliament most of the deputies were lawyers and businessmen. Specifically, 19.7% were lawyers (those in the new Parliament) and 14.4% businessmen and 14.4% business managers. Moreover, 14.4% worked in the public and wider public sector, 10.7% were journalists, presenters or media executives and 7.2% were academics. In addition, 5.3% were professional executives in parties or advisers in organizations, companies and other institutions. 3.6% were civil engineers or educators and 3.4% are doctors. Also, 1.8% are opticians, 1.8% pharmacists, 1.8% chemical engineers, 1.8% insurers, 1.8% accountants / auditors, 1.8% trade unionists and 1 , 8% institute directors.
The Parliament is newer
Regarding the ages of the members of the new Parliament, the youngest is 26 years old (Sotiris Ioannou, of ELAM) and the elder, who will chair the first session of the Plenary, is 70 years old (Zacharias Koulias). Fifteen MPs are between 45-50 years old and another twelve MPs are between 55 and 60 years old. Four MPs are between 30 and 35 years old, another nine MPs are between 36 and 40 years old and four MPs are 40-45 years old. Also five MPs are between 50-55 years old and another five 60 to 65 years old.
