Newsroom
A dispute over who gets to speak out in DISY’s presidential nomination race spilled into public view Thursday, as party lawmaker Giorgos Pamboridis accused some officials of campaigning for their preferred candidate while trying to silence colleagues who disagree.
“It’s as if we were Ceaușescu’s party,” Pamboridis wrote in a social media post, invoking Romania’s former communist dictator. He described the conduct of some officials as “distressing” and accused them of imposing a code of silence on party officials and lawmakers.
His remarks followed a warning Wednesday from DISY Vice President Yiannis Karousos, who said that publicly backing either of the two candidates seeking the party’s presidential nomination risked opening new rifts and turning the party inward.
Pamboridis accused some officials of campaigning for their preferred candidate “from morning until midnight,” then raising concerns about party unity when longtime DISY figures voiced views that challenged their preferred narrative. He also suggested that some officials had quietly accepted what he described as coercion.
“Their conduct offends every principle and value of DISY,” he wrote. “It’s a shame, given our history. DISY stands for light, not darkness.”
For DISY supporters watching the party choose its presidential candidate, the exchange puts a question about the process front and center: How openly can party figures make the case for the person they want on the ballot?
