DO YOU CARE WHO ANASTASIADES LOVES?

Apart from the gossipy, shall we say, dimension of the issue, is there anyone, a supporter of DISY [Democratic Rally] even, who really cares who Anastasiades ‘loves’ more? And if Anastasiades is the corrupt person we keep saying he is, is his support something to be desired or should you rather attempt to convince that you want nothing to do with him?

In a few days, we’ll be filling up on heating oil in order to cope with the winter cold. And that will require a full salary, and certainly not one at the minimum wage level. We (those living in Nicosia at least) set off to travel a distance of 7-10 kilometres, not for the fun of it but out of necessity, and it takes 45 minutes of being stuck in traffic. They tell us to go by bus, but to get from Agios Pavlos to Kaimakli you need four euros and three hours. Every time we go to the supermarket or the grocer’s, there is a new surprise awaiting our pockets. We panic when the electricity bill arrives. Students and low-income earners can’t find a place to live because rents have gone through the roof. We are afraid of getting sick in case we need to be hospitalised in a lousy hospital – in terms of organisation, for starters – whose lousiness is being mirrored by clinics which have now joined GESY.

This is what the average person is concerned about, not who Anastasiades loves and supports more. And instead of dealing with these issues, instead of figuring out how to address them, demanding that someone presents us with a comprehensive plan for moving around in this tiny place, that someone finally organises – at the very least – the public hospitals in each district, that someone tells us how the education system can be modernised, we’re obsessed by with who might be Nicos Anastasiades’ chosen one. It is tragic that such an issue has come to be the focus of the pre-election period, that it monopolises the news and that we are forced to watch the episodes of the Averof, Christodoulides and Anastasiades saga. One day it is the elephant, [Translator’s note: in a recent television debate, presidential candidate Averof Neophytou referred to Anastasiades as ‘the elephant in the room’] the next day it is the sternly-written letter, [Translator’s note: Anastasiades said he would send Neophytou a confidential letter] the next day it is all milk and honey, the day after next it’s all hot air… How long will this go on for? Hopefully not until February. Let’s assume they themselves don’t understand how bad the situation is. Do their communications experts think that such a scenario would sway all those who make up the abstention rate to rush to the polls? Or is that not even the goal?

It is so obvious that the issue concerns only a few, so that keeping things as they are could appear or could be interpreted as a contrived game of diversion tactics.

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