Translated "Avante!" article by Angelo Alves, Member of the PCP Political Committee and of the International Department

The Cypriot people will be called to the polls, for the presidential second round elections, electing the Head of State and government, next Sunday, and succeeding to Dimitris Christofias, the president of the Republic since 2008 and the AKEL’s secretary-general, between 1988 and 2009. The first round results on the 17th February last, dictated the decision ought to be between Nikos Anastasiades, the right-wing candidate and a leader of the DISY party, and Starvos Nalas, the independent candidate, supported by the AKEL. A surprising outcome which, contradicting all voices and projections, considered the right-wing candidate’s victory as certain, on the first round.

One is facing important elections. All attention is aimed on the difficult economic situation. The explosion which took place in July 2011, and practically destroyed the country’s main electrical energy production centre; the speculation game of one of the greatest Cypriot banks holding Greek debt equities; the capitalism crisis impact within a country having an off-shore regime economy, will probably be in the origin of the current situation. A complex situation, with serious social implications, and which, amid a polemic decision, forced the Cypriot government to currently negotiate the access to the European Union ill-fated “ Stabilizing Mechanism”, upon many attempts to avoid it.

This economic situation and the possible decision on an ill-fate called “bailout”, are the proof of limitations to which the AKEL coalition government - performing as a minority in the Chamber of Representatives, with a government in which the most voted party holds a minority of ministers, administrating a capitalist country, together with the media, dominated by the great capital and a high financial level economy - has been and is currently subjected to.

Limitations accented by the European Union straitjacket (of which Cyprus became a member, in the hope of the resolve of its national problem) and by the measures, that under the “bailout” pretext, are being imposed (and to which the Cypriot president has resisted) such as companies’ privatizations and public services or the attempt “to snap at” the natural gas great reserves exploitation and administration, recently discovered in the Cypriot territorial waters.

But one might question what is the reason a communist party decides to administrate a country in this state and proposes to carry on doing it, “ in power”, in fact not holding power, but having to take action within the European Union framework? The answer is not simple and brings about numerous doubts and contradictions, as reality is proving. But what moves the AKEL, a communist party having a strong support among its people, a party truly linked to the masses, with a strong organization and a heroic history of resistance against Fascism and the occupation, the people’s most important problem resolution - the struggle against the occupation of more than a third of its territory by Turkey, since 1974 and its home-land reunification. AKEL is historically and currently, the great Cypriot national cause party. A party which calls upon itself the most complex, hard and contradictory challenges in order to persist in the central purpose of returning to its people, its reunified homeland. This is not a minor question to decide on , when, on the other hand, the right-wing and social-democracy, both exploit or “through in the towel”, regarding the national issue. But this is not all. Next Sunday, the two options will be on the table. Resist to a neo-liberal Cypriot State reconfiguration imposition, performed by the DISY, or instead, resist, although in difficult conditions to that purpose.