‘AKEL can continue to be strong opposition force in parliament’

Akel is a strong and effective opposition force, party leader Stefanos Stefanou said on Saturday, unveiling the party’s candidates for May’s parliamentary elections.

“The stronger Akel is in parliament, the stronger the society within parliament. The more difficult it is for policies that serve big interests to the detriment of the many to pass. The greater the pressure on the government to account, to explain, to correct,” said Stefanou.

He emphasised that in parliament, “the forces that express the workers must be strong. The small and medium-sized and middle classes. The young people who feel, not unjustly, that they have no future. Not the big financial interests. Not the establishment that avoids transparency and fears accountability.”

Observing that “institutional entanglement and corruption are not only not limited, but are being strengthened,” he pointed to the recently released video alleging misconduct by the government.

He said that “those in power operate with the arrogance of the uncontrolled and impunity” adding that “in the face of this reality, the strong and effective opposition force is Akel.”

He said the party stands against a government that does not have society and its needs as its first priority, but serves powerful interests.

“We will be persistent and exert pressure, acting as a bulwark against practices that serve business interests behind closed doors,” he continued, adding that “the government’s slow-burn reaction to the scandal that caused a social outcry says a lot.”

Akel, he said, is entering the elections with concrete proposals on rising prices, housing, as well as energy and water issues, aiming to strengthen the social state, including reducing VAT on electricity, abolishing double taxation on fuel, and scrapping green taxes.

He warned that the rise of the far right poses a threat to democracy and “fundamental human values,” calling on voters to strengthen Akel as the most consistent force of opposition and accusing Christodoulides’ government of flirting with Elam.

Akel’s ballot has a total of 56 candidates, and according to Stefanou includes more young people and women, as well as candidates from diverse backgrounds and professions.

He described them as “selfless, honest, clean people, guided only by the well-intentioned interest of our country and society,” adding that the list “expresses the values and ideals of the modern Left, without ideological entrenchments, but with the momentum it creates through a strong social alliance.”

Stefanou also emphasised that the elections “must not turn into elections to vent anger,” stressing that they are “elections of responsibility”, in which the result will determine who ultimately holds the power in parliament to represent society.