The country needs a big and progressive change, a new beginning, a new course
AKEL expresses the wish that 2021 will be a year of prosperity and progress for the whole of the Cypriot people – Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians and Latins – as well as for the refugees and immigrants who live and work in our country.
The passing year was marked by an unprecedented challenge for the entire world. We are sure that humanity will overcome the threat to human health. However, it must come out wiser from the ordeal of the pandemic. It should recognise in practice the value of science as a force for social progress and not as a tool for the maximization of profit. It should truly invest in public health systems and discover again the essence of solidarity between states and peoples, between people themselves.
Our country has been tested and continues to be tested by the pandemic. People now have a very clear understanding of the ineffectiveness of the government’s handling of the pandemic, but above all of the current critical situation of public hospitals. We express the hope that the pandemic will sooner or later be overcome in our country as well. But its social and economic consequences will not be overcome easily or quickly. Cypriot society is threatened with a new wave of unemployment, poverty and a new setback in people’s standard of living. AKEL’s first priority in the period ahead is to work and struggle so that the consequences of the pandemic are confronted, that no family and small business will find themselves on the street, that the income of working people and small and medium-sized businesses is supported, that modern labour rights are safeguarded, the National Health Scheme is protected and that a real social policy is implemented.
All through 2020, Turkey continued its aggression against Cyprus and its machinations for the colonalisation of Famagusta, while there is now an advocate of partition in the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community. The situation for the future of the Cyprus problem and of Cyprus itself is dangerous. AKEL has already submitted to the President of the Republic a comprehensive proposal on how the government should – even belatedly – act on the Cyprus problem and our Party is waiting for the President’s response.
At the same time, and on this occasion too, AKEL declares in every direction – both inside and outside Cyprus, on both sides of the barbed wire of division – that it will never accept a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem. Such a nightmarish development will mark the beginning of the end for the Cypriot people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. AKEL insists that only the solution of the Cyprus problem on the agreed basis and framework, only the liberation and reunification of our homeland and people, can guarantee lasting peace, security and the future of the future generations in their homeland.
The Anastasiades-DISY government did not only lead the Cyprus problem to dangerous paths. It is the government that has seen corruption reach unprecedented levels. It humiliated institutions and the rule of law. It obstructs transparency. It openly serves the powerful economic interests. It is sliding into practices and mentalities characterising regimes.
Everything points to the need of the country for a big and progressive change, a new beginning, a new course. 2021 must become a milestone on the path towards achieving this great change that our country and people need. AKEL will continue to strengthen its ties with the Cypriot people, to draw strength and thrust from its ideology and 95-year history. It shall continue to correct mistakes and overcome weaknesses. To propose, even more decisively and effectively, demands and assertions that respond to the modern problems of our people, workers and young people.
This is AKEL’s promise to all our people.
All the best for the New Year to everyone!
Source: Progressive Party of the Working People – AKEL – AKEL NEW YEAR 2021 DECLARATION