Averof Neophytou, who has turned Disy upside down in the pursuit of his presidential ambition, announced on Wednesday that he would stand in Monday’s election for the party candidacy. This was not the original plan of the former party leader, who, a couple of weeks earlier, said he would not take part in the party selection process and instead stand as a candidate.
If Neophytou carried out his threat, he would have split the Disy vote and ensured that neither he nor the party’s presidential candidate would advance to the second Sunday run-off. Faced with this prospect, party leader Annita Demetriou, who had announced her plan to stand and set a date for the vote, decided to withdraw, for the sake of safeguarding party unity. She had also come under pressure from a small but influential group not to stand.
With Demetriou out of the way, Neophytou decided to play by the party rules. He will not follow the example set by Nicos Christodoulides in 2022 as he had threatened to do a few weeks ago, forcing Demetriou into the rash decision of setting a date for the party elections. This was a big mistake, although Demetriou calculated it was the best way to sideline Neophytou, especially if he snubbed the party election.
Neophytou is now favourite to defeat Pamborides and win the title of Disy presidential candidate, but this will not be the end of the party’s problems. It was given an idea of what to expect last week when Neophytou publicly urged President Nikos Christodoulides to call for an end to EU sanctions on Russia so that the supply of petrol on the world market would increase and the price of fuel would come down.
It was crude populism, as Neophytou is smart enough to know this would never happen, but it undermined the party which, as a member of the European People’s Party, is fully aligned with the sanctions policy of the EU. This was the reason it felt obliged to issue an announcement to clarify that it supported EU sanctions on Russia. Without wanting to, the party sided with the president against the man who could be its presidential candidate.
Disy is now staring at the embarrassing prospect of its presidential candidate, assuming Neophytou wins on Monday, promoting policies that the party disagrees with. Presumably, the man who will be candidate will confer with the party leadership about his campaign programme. This is the problem of having a presidential candidate who is not the party leader. Who would follow who?
There is still a very long way to go until the presidential elections and there could still be some surprises down the road. What would Neophytou do if, against all odds, he is defeated by Pamborides on Monday?