Our View: Akel is quite simply stuck in the past

Akel held its 24th Pancyprian conference at the weekend, electing a new central committee and re-electing its leader Stefanos Stefanou with 96.4 per cent of the vote. This was a mobilisation of the party membership as preparations begin for the parliamentary elections that will be held in 11 months.

What was evident was that the party will contest these elections with the familiar slogans and rhetoric about the class struggle, the protection of the workers, fighting the cost of living and, of course, stopping the rise of the far-right, which has become the rallying cry of all left-wing parties in Europe. There was no attempt at politically re-positioning the party in order to adapt to changing conditions and attract young voters. The conference’s main message was that Akel was the mother of hope for building a “progressive future”, whatever that could mean.

The party remains stuck in the past even though this has ensured its steady decline in support over the years. That its candidate in the 2023 presidential election run-off, received about 48 per cent of the vote had more to do with strategic voting than any broadening of the party’s support base, as the leadership seems to believe. After the disastrous Christofias presidency, seen by many as the cause of the collapse of the economy in 2013, Akel had to make a break with the past, so it would no longer be considered synonymous with economic mismanagement.

There could have been no better illustration of its antiquated thinking than the fuss it made about the absence of a representative of the government from its conference. It accepted that the president was abroad, but it publicly complained about the government’s failure to send a representative to the conference. The exchange that followed, the deputy government spokesman claiming no invitation had been received and Akel claiming he was being economical with the truth, was absurd.

Did the Akel leadership feel offended because the government that it attacks on a daily basis was not present at its conference? The habit of a party inviting the president and the party leaders to its conference, even when it is in opposition and at odds with rival parties, is one of the absurdities of Cyprus political life. This stupidity does not take place anywhere else in the democratic world. Would the Democrats invite a Republican president to a conference they have? Or would the UK’s Conservative Party invite the Labour prime minister to its annual conference? Party conferences are for party supporters.

That Akel made such a fuss about the government’s alleged snub, shows a party that cannot move forward, still under the illusion that moaning about trivialities, which no sane person cares about, will strengthen it.