IN THE highly unlikely event that George Pamborides wins the Disy vote for the presidential candidacy next month it would be only the second time in its 50-year history that the party would fight the elections with a member of the Nicosia haute bourgeoisie.
The last time a born and bred Nicosia voutiropedo (butter-boy) was the Disy candidate was in 2008 when Ioannis Kasoulides stood and was defeated by the communist peasant, Demetris Christofias who had the second round backing of Diko. His candidacy had also been undermined by the then Disy leader Nik I.
Like Kasoulides, Pamborides would not be standing as the leader of the party, because the Disy leader, traditionally, was a full-blooded villager. Clerides was from Agros, Matsis from Palechori, Anastasiades from Pera Pedi, Averof from Argaka and Annita from Troulli.
The party of the monied middle class has always been led by a villager and that is not going to change any time soon because the Troulli blonde is not going anywhere, especially after she was talked out of being a presidential candidate, by Averof’s entourage.
AS A MEMBER of the Nicosia Kerrygold class myself I have to admit feeling resentful and bitter about the blatant discrimination our group has suffered ever since the establishment of our dysfunctional republic.
Kyproulla’s voters have unfailingly snubbed the Nicosia butter-boys, probably because of envy. The highest elected position a Nicosia voutiropedo has reached is that of mayor. My friend, the late Alexis Galanos, who served as House president in the 90s, may have been of the butter-boy class, but he was from Famagusta.
Our only representative in the political system now is Ethnarch Junior (above), which is kind of ironic, considering he leads Diko –- a party of peasants and lower middle class wannabes and thus our biggest enemies.
We have never had a president from Nicosia, let alone a Nicosia voutiropedo, even though it is the biggest city and the capital. Makarios, like the current Prez, was a Paphite, Spy Kyp and George Vass hailed from Limassol, Nik I from Pera Pedi and Clerides from Agros.
I am starting to believe that the only way of getting a Nicosian into the presidential palace is to establish a rotating presidency, even before a settlement.
THE TWO Disy presidential hopefuls will be officially submitting their candidacies at the party on Monday.
To be eligible they require 500 signatures from party members, 100 of whom must be from the Supreme Council (this sounds like a communist party) and from different districts. Pamborides sent the documentation with 500 signatures on Friday.
Averof, in contrast, arranged a media event for the delivery of his signatures on Thursday. In a show of strength, the former party leader arrived with five boxes of documents, containing more than 3,000 signatures, which would not necessarily translate into votes, but were a reminder of the hold he has on members from the villages.
I suspect Pamborides is too much of a Nicosia voutiropedo (English School graduate as well) to appeal to the Disy villager vote. They hate us.
I LOVED the tweet on ‘X’ by former newspaper columnist and pro-settlement campaigner Theodoros Theodorou, about an interview given by Nik I. He said:
“I listened to the whole interview of the former president Nicos Anastasiades on the Ant1 podcast and I must say it surprised me. In the whole interview he did not say even one truth. Not even by mistake. He churned out one lie after the other, with the type of gravity that only actors of great prominence would have been capable of. If there is a contest for lies the former president would deserve the first prize.”
Theodorou, it has to be said, has every reason to hate Nik I, who got him axed from two newspapers he wrote for (first Alithia and then Kathimerini) because of his very critical comments about Nik’s presidency. The man then wrote for Politis, but did not last long there either, presumably because of his attacks on Annita.
ONLY in Kyproulla could reform aimed at reducing costs result in higher costs than those that existed before the reform was implemented.
When the troika was here, telling us how to put public finances in order, one of its main diktats was the rationalisation of local government by drastically reducing the absurdly high number of municipalities and the hordes of underworked employees.
It goes without saying that the political parties, with their constant chopping and changing of the reform bills, created a colossal mess. One of their biggest achievements was the creation of the position of the ‘deputy mayor’, who has no duties or responsibilities, but is paid some three grand a month for doing absolutely nothing.
In a report released last month, the Fiscal Council pointed out that the state expenditure on wages in local government had gone up significantly. The wage cost in 2022 was €144 million, but in 2025, after the reform, this amount increased to €205 million.
The cost-cutting reform of local government had increased the cost in salaries by some 40 per cent. Pretty impressive even by Kyproulla standards.
HE MAY not have decided whether he will seek re-election in 2028, but Prezniktwo has embarked on his re-election campaign anyway, just in case he decides to stand when he takes his final decision.
The campaign visits to the villages (he knows that it is the villagers who elect the prez) for ribbon-cutting have been stepped up. On Wednesday afternoon, Prezniktwo went to Sykopetra (also known as Figstone) in the Limassol district, where he gave an address at the “inauguration ceremony of the Communal Park with a Mini Football pitch Profitis Elias”.
The Prez was also filmed kicking a ball at the Profitis Elias Mini Football pitch. No opening ceremony is too small or too trivial for the Prez to attend as he has a lot of free time.
SPEAKING of the presidential elections, another saviour is considering being a candidate, although, like the prez, he will make his decision next year.
I refer to the self-promoting, UK Cypriot billionaire, John Christodoulou, who was approached by Fidias Panayiotou who is looking for a presidential candidate that Direct Democracy could back. Christodoulou, who employs a full-time personal publicist, does a lot of charity work which is very well publicised.
Responding to the press reports about a possible candidacy, he said: “I want to be clear. I am no politician. I never wanted to become one and never planned to have a life in politics.” Would he not be going against his own wishes if he decided to stand?
If he does decide to stand, he will need to have quite a few lessons on how to speak Greek properly to stand a chance, because currently he sounds like a Turkish Cypriot when he speaks Greek.
WHAT is a counterfeit condom? This question came up after seeing the headline ‘Counterfeit condoms’ in Friday’s Cyprus Mail.
The story was based on a press release from the Customs Department, which proudly announced that it had “seized 28,000 suspected counterfeit condoms during an inspection of a sea shipment that arrived from Greece on Thursday”.
The customs department explained that the condoms were counterfeit because they infringed intellectual property rights of a well-known brand. The owner of the company involved, according to the department, admitted that his rubber johnnies were not the real McCoy.
As part of its social responsibility, the customs department warned that the fake condoms could pose serious health risks including unwanted pregnancies and the transmission of sexual diseases. How did customs know this? Had they tested the fake condoms, or did they come with holes in them?
I COULD not believe a report in Wednesday’s Politis that claimed restaurants were charging €150 for a dozen ambelopoulia. Are there morons out there willing to pay that kind of money for what is essentially a ball of gooey fat?
If the story is accurate, it would mean the cost of a single ambelopouli is €12.50, more than double the price you would pay for a class ‘A’ oyster in a London or Paris restaurant. Perhaps the extortionate price also includes the ambience of the seedy village taverns that serve the birds to peasants with money.