How Nikos Christodoulides managed to suffer a painful defeat in two consecutive elections that were supposedly nothing to do with him perhaps comes down to this: he needs to choose his allies more carefully. And his battles.
Annita Demetriou spectacularly proved the Christodoulides camp's doomsayers — inside and outside the Democratic Rally (DISY) — completely wrong. She won re-election as House Speaker for a second consecutive term without yielding an inch on party principles, without betraying its history, and without compromising her personal dignity. Plenty of people rushed to accuse her of jumping the gun on her candidacy announcement, of arrogance, of refusing to listen, of going her own way, of thinking that 27% made her queen of the universe — or whatever other nonsense the Presidential Palace was feeding to its mouthpieces, mostly within the Democratic Rally (DISY) itself. In the end, the strategy of "I'm standing because I've earned it, and anyone with any sense will fall in line" worked. Annita was re-elected in the second round with 29 votes — 17 from the Democratic Rally (DISY), eight from the Democratic Party (DIKO), and four from Direct Democracy Cyprus — with minimal horse-trading, and she even picked up the wild card of Direct Democracy Cyprus, which kept its cards face-down literally until the session opened. Rumours had suggested Fidias's party would back Nikolas, but apparently even the two left-wingers within Direct Democracy Cyprus voted for Annita — without, naturally, the decision passing through the party app. Even Direct Democracy Cyprus's travelling theatrical troupe — otherwise known as its parliamentary group — apparently grasped that a vote of this gravity was too serious to be decided by every random person Agora scraped off the street because they confused it with Temu. Never mind, kids. Jim Jones's followers at least had the excuse of cyanide-laced Flavor Aid. You got off lightly with nothing more than a dud promise of "direct democracy."
Direct Democracy Cyprus aside, however, the true farce of the day goes by the name of the Democratic Party (DIKO). Nikolas Papadopoulos, in his desperate lunge for the pinnacle of his political career, went straight off the cliff — chasing the votes of people he had until recently called "Golden Dawn orphans" and whom he personally denounced as "a party with a criminal record." Fine, we're talking about the Democratic Party (DIKO), the concubine of our political system, but watching the self-styled "true Makarios party" crawl cap in hand to the political heirs of EOKA B for support from the first round was — even by the Democratic Party’s (DIKO) already subterranean standards — new and uncharted depths. A historic and ideological striptease. An Olympic-grade somersault. And it ended in total humiliation, as the National People's Front (ELAM) magnificently ghosted them — nominating Christos Christou in the first round and effectively dropping Nikolas straight into the Backrooms of irrelevance. They trashed their own history, and got their eight votes for their trouble. So, rightfully: this embarrassment belongs to the Democratic Party (DIKO) too — your words, your legacy. Though if Nikolas turns out to be a good boy and backs Annita for President in 2028, he might yet warm the Speaker's chair for three years. Beggars can't be choosers, after all.
With the Democratic Party (DIKO) reduced to water-carrier for the far right and the supposedly anti-establishment Direct Democracy Cyprus proving the most obedient children of the very system they claimed to have come to demolish, the Democratic Rally (DISY) and the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) emerged as the rocks of stability, credibility and integrity. Stefanos Stefanou fought a dignified campaign without budging an inch on values and principles. Annita managed to win re-election without the tainted far-right votes she had dragged around like a millstone since 2021 — while practically hitching both the Democratic Party (DIKO) and Direct Democracy Cyprus to her wagon for future use. In short: some parties took seriously the public's demand for a change in political culture — consistency, transparency, honesty — and, whether out of genuine conviction or the fear that keeps fools in line, avoided the backflips and backroom deals. Others simply showed us exactly what they have always been.
As for the day's big loser, Nikos Christodoulides — who watched all his painstaking work to build a government bloc in parliament under Nikolas's speakership collapse, brought down by precisely the people he openly underestimated before the election (karma is a b*tch) — he will probably have to rethink his approach if he doesn't want to make it a third straight defeat in 2028.
