Our View: Neophytou risks reputation by aligning with Anastasiades

The revelation that former President Nicos Anastasiades and former Disy leader Averof Neophytou held a meeting last week fired speculation about what they could be up to. It was certainly not a social meeting of friends as they are very clearly not friends – never have been and never will be – so what could have been the point of the meeting?

If Anastasiades was not the champion of the two-state solution, there could be speculation that they met in order to build an alliance to encourage President Christodoulides to push for a Cyprus settlement. Their meeting was held before Tuesday’s dinner in New York, but it was only Neophytou who issued impassioned pleas to Christodoulides to seize the opportunity. Anastasiades said nothing about the meeting, given that his position on a settlement is closer to that of Ersin Tatar than the president’s.

A more realistic explanation for this inexplicable rapprochement was that they both feel sidelined by Disy, the party they had been leaders of, and discussed ways to take back control, or at least re-assert their influence over it. This could not have been good news for the party chief Annita Demetriou, who has been grappling with the thankless task of establishing a degree of unity, ever since she took over the leadership.

She has to keep control of a leadership team which contains Christodoulides supporters, without also having to deal with an Anastasiades-Neophytou front, aimed at undermining her. To keep the two former leaders under control, Demetriou set up an advisory council of former Disy big wigs who would offer advice to the leader, but it seems her plan has not worked. In the last few days, she has not helped her case, as leader of the opposition, by pandering to the president and announcing she gave him an account of her visit, as House president, to China. Does she think he will not come to her rescue?

There may be some method to this madness, but in the case of Neophytou there is none. His decision to make up with Anastasiades, the man who consistently undermined his leadership, relentlessly bad-mouthed him to friends and associates and campaigned for the election of his rival presidential candidate defies belief. By even entertaining the idea of entering some political alliance with the man who openly deceived him and worked on politically destroying, Neophytou is showing incredible weakness and a complete lack of political judgment. And his pride?

Does Neophytou not understand that he will lose what support he still has by even talking to Anastasiades, let alone making political plans with him? How can he trust someone who has fooled him so many times? Neophytou can still walk away and salvage some of his political reputation, leaving the isolated Anastasiades to deal with the mounting corruption allegations he faces on his own. The former president is subject to several investigations regarding corruption and even the European Commission is investigating some of his government’s decisions. Neophytou should put aside any illusion that Anastasiades will help him pursue his political ambitions and leave him on his own to face the music. It is the least Anastasiades deserves.