Paris Demetriades
Since the morning of Saturday, February 28, when the most ruthless and unscrupulous prime minister in Israel’s history decided, together with the most unhinged president in the history of the United States, to push the button on a deranged conflict in our neighborhood, Cyprus too has been placed on alert as a neighboring country. By the second day of this outrageous situation, a kamikaze drone had already struck the British bases at Akrotiri.
From the very first moment, developments in what has now become a regional conflict have been unfolding at a pace that the average rational mind struggles to process calmly. In such circumstances, one cannot help but wonder how Cyprus would respond if positions of power were currently held by the assortment of anti-establishment sideshows that have recently sprung up, demanding a voice and a role in the political and public life of our country.
And I say our country as well, because this unhealthy phenomenon, the degradation of political life through newly minted and supposedly anti-establishment movements and personalities, is not unique to Cyprus. It can be observed across many countries at this moment, and unfortunately it is manifesting itself in increasingly dangerous ways.
That said, let me be clear. I do not consider the government of Nicos Christodoulides’ handling of events so far to be a success story. Nor am I among those who have swelled with emotion and pride at the sight of frigates, soldiers, and warplanes gathering around our island. The photos and videos of our president standing beside the prime minister of Greece aboard the frigate Kimon may be charming and perfectly suited for Instagram, but given the magnitude of the tension surrounding us, a more restrained tone would likely be wiser.
I do not dismiss the assistance coming from Europe, if and insofar as it concerns us. Still, above all I would have preferred that we had not reached this point so quickly in the first place. More broadly, our actions should be oriented toward the need for peace to prevail, not toward the further escalation of war rhetoric and the expansion of the dangers surrounding us.
Consider, however, how much more uncomfortable and dangerous the situation would be if our country, which has now become a target, distant but real, for terrorist and other attacks within the framework of this grim war, were governed by grotesque and completely reality-detached formations such as ELAM, Christoforos Tornaritis’s “Sikou Pano,” or Fidias Panayiotou’s “Direct Democracy.”
A few years ago such a scenario might have sounded like a dark joke from some surreal parallel world. Today, unfortunately, it is a possibility.
One wonders, perhaps in vain, whether the “indignant” and “fed up” fellow citizens who intend to vote for these forces in the upcoming parliamentary elections have reflected at all, these past days, on the dangers they are exposing the country to. Would they truly feel comfortable if, at a moment when a savage and uncontrolled war is raging just beyond our doorstep, we had as president a half-mad eccentric ready, quite literally, to strap on weapons and charge into battle?
In truth, we do not need a lengthy analysis to understand the destructive impact that loud, simplistic anti-establishment populism can have on political life. It is enough to look at the farcical case of Donald Trump, who in short order has humiliated the United States more than at perhaps any other moment in its history, dragging the country into a disastrous war with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Those consequences will not affect only the peoples of our region, who are directly exposed to the conflict. American citizens themselves will inevitably pay the price, sooner or later.
What is needed now is calm, restraint, and a clear recognition that the stakes at this moment are extraordinarily high. This is not merely about prosperity during times of normalcy and stability. It is, above all, about the continuation of life itself under conditions of genuine peace.
Put simply, this is no time for anti-establishment sideshows in the middle of a real war.
