Akel outlines priorities for 2028 presidential election

Akel secretary-general Stefanos Stefanou on Saturday outlined the party’s priorities for the 2028 presidential election, calling for a change of government and a new approach to the Cyprus problem, the economy and foreign policy. Addressing the party’s central committee as it met to approve its electoral framework, Stefanou presented seven priorities for what he described as “progressive change”, while sharply criticising the administrations of former President Nicos Anastasiades and President Nikos Christodoulides. “For us, elections have a deep political content. They are not about personal ambitions or agendas, but about the ability to talk about the substance, about everything that determines our reality, as a state and as citizens,” he said.

Stefanou blamed Anastasiades and Christodoulides for what he described as the country’s “deplorable situation”, arguing that the problems facing Cyprus were the result of deliberate political choices. “The dystopian reality we are experiencing, against the prosperity of numbers, does not happen in a political vacuum. It concerns specific political choices that were made and led us here,” he said. He accused Anastasiades of betraying his election promises through the 2013 haircut on bank deposits, which he said had devastated thousands of households and small and medium-sized businesses. Stefanou also alleged that the cooperative banking sector had been deliberately driven into bankruptcy and sold off to rescue a private bank, while legislative changes had enabled banks to seize people’s property through fast-track procedures. Akel boss Stefanos Stefanou He further accused the previous administration of allowing corruption to flourish through major development projects, some of which remained unfinished. “It is during this…