Christodoulides praises own govt in May Day address

President Nikos Christodoulides listed the achievements of his government which he says have been to the benefit of workers in his address to mark May Day on Friday.

“May Day is a day of honour and recognition of workers’ timeless struggle for decent conditions and security at work – conditions which correspond to their contribution and ensure that economic progress and development will be translated into security, prospects, and real social wellbeing for all,” he began.

He then said that listed the advancements which he says his government has secured for workers, “precisely through this reasoning and on the basis of social liberalism, which constitutes our ideological and political framework”.

The first point he listed was an increase in the minimum wage from €940 per month when he was elected in 2023 to €1,088 per month now, pointing out that this constitutes an increase of 13.6 per cent.

He then said that the tax reforms his government implemented at the beginning of the year have “increased the disposable income of around 200,000 workers”.

“This is a substantial increase in disposable income which workers immediately experienced in their salaries from the first month of the reform’s implementation, while the reform also increased the tax-free income threshold from €19,500 to €22,000 [per year],” he said.

He also pointed to an agreement reached in December regarding the payment of the cost-of-living allowance (CoLA) which saw its indexing rise from a payment of 50 per cent of the rate of the interest of the cost of living as a percentage of a worker’s salary to 66.7 per cent, with forecast rises to an eventual100 per cent in the coming months.

“At the same time, due to our responsible fiscal policy and high economic growth, according to recent data from the statistical service, the median gross monthly earnings of workers increased successively in the years 2024 and 2025 by five per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively,” he said.

As such, he added, “our efforts are continuing with reforms to the pension system, aiming, in addition to securing the long-term sustainability of the system, to strengthen the adequacy of pensions, especially for low-income pensioners, and to ensure fairness between generations”.

He also pointed out that during Cyprus’ term as the holder of the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency, an agreement was reached to revise the coordination of national social security systems between EU member states.

This, he said, had come about “after ten years of stagnation”, with Labour Minister Marinos Mousiouttas having said on Wednesday that “the revised rules will make it easier for people who live or work in another EU country to understand, claim, and access the rights and benefits to which they are entitled, without unnecessary barriers”.

Christodoulides on Friday said that the agreement constitutes “a strong social impact which substantially strengthens the rights of workers moving within the union”, because “among other things, greater legal clarity is ensured and the effective implementation of all the rules is improved, so no worker faces bureaucratic hurdles”.

“Our government remains fully committed to supporting our workers and pensioners, adopting policies which strengthen social cohesion and ensure a stable and reliable social protection system, worthy of Cypriot society’s expectations,” he said.

He added that “we can do this because of our prudent fiscal policy, which allows us to make substantial social interventions, keeping well away from populist approaches and wishful thinking.