Onasagoras
At the last election, Averof was accused of getting so caught up with the big interests of the elite that he snubbed the party faithful and the average voter. Young Nikos, meanwhile, had visited every association and hunting club in our little homeland. This time, then, Averof is determined to meet everyone. And I mean everyone. Voters and nonvoters, Cypriots and foreigners. In that spirit, he took off his socks the other day to meet an Indian spiritual leader and greeted him with the familiar 'namaste'. As Zouganeli sang, “Well, here we are, my friends, with an arrow in my heart…”
After Foulis’ controversial pronouncements (along the lines of “I’ll never betray you, but if you don’t give me the nomination, I’ll run as an independent just to tear you apart”), we now have Stefanos doing his best impression of the Oracle of Delphi. “No name is in play, and every name is in play,” he says. A bit like that old ANT1 slogan, “Everything’s on ANT1,” except this time there’s every chance nobody’s on. As our ancient ancestors used to say, “The children play,” and apparently so do the comrades. And if Stefanos isn’t playing, he’s certainly playing us.
“I have a candidate in mind, but I’m not telling you who it is.” — Stefanos Stefanou
You may remember that when Stefanos was asked about Yasemides a few days ago, he came out with this gem: “If I saw him in the street, I wouldn’t recognize him.” Now he tells us Yasemides is in the running, along with Mavroyiannis and, for good measure, Stefanos himself. And just to clear up what he meant by “no name is in play, and every name is in play,” he drops another bombshell. He has someone specific in mind, but he won’t tell us who just yet. Let’s hope he lets us in on it before the election, at least.
Rumor has it that the mystery candidate is Averof or Pamporidis, depending on who loses the party nomination. Nobody has confirmed it. Nobody has denied it, either. The one thing we can be sure of is that Annita won’t raise any objections, all for the sake of unity in our little country.
In the end, with the United Nations threatening to leave us high and dry, we agreed to open two crossing points, albeit two of the less significant ones. Some wanted four opened. Others wanted none. A few people in the governing coalition (quite a few, actually) wanted to shut even the ones we’d already opened. We’re one big happy family.
In any case, the agreement keeps the talks alive, even if they’re still on a ventilator. Meanwhile, young Nikos is trying to enter the home stretch of the campaign with at least a little movement on the Cyprus problem. After all, he’d been accused of running without getting anywhere. Jogging in place, basically.
