The Cyprus Government is currently avoiding public debate, hoping to minimise the damage from an internal crisis over the electrical interconnector project. The crisis pits President Nikos Christodoulides and Finance Minister Makis Keravnos against the main coalition partner, DIKO.
Government attention is primarily focused on Monday’s Parliament Plenary session regarding tax reform. The votes of DIKO are essential for passing this legislation, and officials in the Presidency and the Ministry of Finance are keen to avoid a public confrontation with Nicos Papadopoulos while the crucial tax vote is pending.
On Saturday morning, Presidential Press Director Victor Papadopoulos simply reiterated that the Government is unified and will implement the recent decision made by President Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (to update the project’s technical and economic data before proceeding).
However, the Government will soon be forced to take a substantive stance, possibly during one of President Christodoulides’ public appearances this weekend.
The disagreement held by DIKO and its leader, Nicos Papadopoulos, over the Government’s handling of the interconnector has been known for some time. However, it was never expressed as intensely or as clearly directed at the President and Mr Keravnos as it was this week.
The criticism was delivered on Monday during the state budget debate in Parliament, and again yesterday, with the caustic and aggressive statements made by Mr Papadopoulos during RIK’s midday news programme.
Despite journalists’ efforts until late yesterday afternoon, the Government refused to comment on the matter.
A first response to Nicos Papadopoulos may be given this weekend through a letter. This would be in reply to a previous letter sent by the DIKO President to Mr Christodoulides regarding the electrical interconnector, which the President had not yet answered—a point raised by Mr Papadopoulos on RIK yesterday.
Nicos Papadopoulos demands President clarify his position
Referring to the electrical interconnector with Greece and recent statements by Makis Keravnos, Mr Papadopoulos expressed regret over the Finance Minister’s remarks. He called them “derogatory and insulting to the new Energy Minister,” who had previously stated the project was viable, otherwise the EU would not have funded it.
The DIKO President then issued a direct challenge to President Christodoulides: “The President of the Republic must finally state publicly which of his ministers he agrees with? The Minister of Energy or the Minister of Finance? He cannot agree with both. Are we going to play ‘musical chairs’? Which of the two is right, because they cannot both be right.”
With this statement, Mr Papadopoulos effectively confirmed opposition parties’ claims of “double-talk” within the Government regarding the Greece-Cyprus-Israel (GSI) interconnector cable—a position the Presidency can no longer ignore.
Mr Papadopoulos also expressed regret over another part of Mr Keravnos’s remarks. “I would like to express my sorrow over the derogatory and insulting references to DIKO,” he said (referring to remarks reportedly made by Mr Keravnos without naming DIKO, but alluding to the party’s president).
“We are neither irresponsible, nor do we wear patriotic cloaks, nor do we say whatever we want from a position of safety. Such references are an insult to the party,” the DIKO President stated. “Mr Keravnos and the President of the Republic hold their offices today because DIKO supported the President, and we demand more respect when officials of this Government refer to us. In particular, we demand respect as a party that has supported this Government at significant political cost.”
According to the DIKO President, the worst part is that the Finance Minister is once again presented as uninformed about the GSI project. “The European Energy Commissioner has rejected the proposal to conduct a new economic study, separate from the one the EU carried out to give us the €658 million, and has said he will not take it into account. Therefore, the Government’s insistence on a new study may lead to the collapse of the project.”
In another part of his comments, Mr Papadopoulos claimed there was information that the Government planned to award the study to a firm that had publicly stated its opposition to the project. Phileleftheros‘s information suggests that the selection of the firm to conduct the update study—if the two governments proceed—will be done jointly by the relevant state services of both countries.
The new Energy Minister, Michalis Damianou, has so far avoided engaging with the issue. Mr Damianou had stated on Wednesday that the project would continue as agreed between Christodoulides and Mitsotakis (a study to update the data) and that the project’s viability was confirmed in Brussels by the EU, which decided to fund it.
For now, Mr Damianou is following the official government decision (the project proceeds after a technical and economic data update is carried out). Mr Keravnos (and presumably the President) insists that the disbursement of funds to ADMIE (the Greek project promoter) will only happen after the update is completed, provided the new study yields a positive result.
Makis Keravnos reportedly made statements suggesting that Mr Damianou had “not yet been fully informed” about the interconnector—presumably a comment aimed at the new Energy Minister’s assertion that the project was viable.
This statement ignited the fuse, prompting Nicos Papadopoulos’s aggressive remarks yesterday. This came just days after DIKO gave the Government a vote of confidence by passing the state budget. It remains unclear whether Mr Papadopoulos’s critical impulse will extend to other major policy issues.