Reports were rife recently that the three remaining DIKO ministers would resign from the party, ahead of the expected cabinet reshuffle. Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis resigned from the party last week. Earlier the party’s spokeswoman Christiana Erotokritou said there had been no resignations from the party by any of the three.

However, Education Minister Kyriacos Kenevezos posted a statement on his Facebook page outlining the reasons for his break with the party. In it he said DIKO’s recent decision to withdraw from the coalition served strategies and tactics disguised in a patriotic cloak, which aimed at the party’s sensitivities on the national issue. “However, genuine patriotism dictates that any political ambitions serve the majority – which is the national and public interest,” said Kenevezos.

“I think that DIKO, now more than ever, should be involved in achieving a solution and in defending the interests of the Greek Cypriots instead of the chosen route of denial and escape.” Kenevezos said that as far back as two weeks before the central committee’s meeting on February 26, a marginal decision had been taken to withdraw. “So I just, I feel that the prearranged outcome of the central committee removed from DIKO the right to effective participation and intervention in [political] developments disguised as political ethics,” he added.

He said his time as a minster in the government of President Nicos Anastasiades had been a time where joint efforts had managed to steer Cyprus from bankruptcy towards a more optimistic future. “But the decision of the central committee of the Democratic Party is an attempt to halt this effort, sacrificing it at the altar of other interests,” he said.

Source: Cyprus Mail