Parties got another chance — and showed the same old mentality

Opinion electionsparliament Parties got another chance — and showed the same old mentality Twenty Seven Mps Leave Parliament With Gratuities Of Up To €250,000 Relevant News Parties got another chance — and showed the same old mentality 15 June 2026 EU vote on US trade deal is set to bring tariff peace, but for how long? 15 June 2026 France, Britain push Hormuz mission as truce nears, but Iran’s stance key 15 June 2026 Eleftheria Paizanou 15 June 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Voters gave the traditional parties one last chance to salvage what could still be salvaged at the May 24th elections. Some of them, however, instead of seizing that chance with both hands and proving they had changed — that they were no longer prisoners of ideological habit — proceeded, from their very first moves, to squander the trust the public had placed in them. The rows and backroom brawling inside the Selection Committee over the carve-up of parliamentary committees showed that nothing has changed from the previous parliament. The opening skirmish over committee chairmanships ended in deadlock, with AKEL and ELAM at each other’s throats — for no good reason — over the Environment Committee. Environmental issues matter enormously, not least because Cyprus must align with EU directives as part of the green transition. But that particular committee has never, in previous years, been a prize anyone fought over. AKEL argued it was rightfully theirs — having graciously handed it to the Ecologists in the previous parliament, they were owed it back under the new composition. ELAM, having doubled its parliamentary seats, countered that its vote share entitled it to three committees, and this was one of them. After round after round of talks, the Environment Committee went to ELAM, secured by the votes of DISY, ELAM, and DIKO — triggering a furious response from AKEL. In the final distribution, DISY took five committees — Institutions, Legal Affairs, Health, Foreign Affairs, and Commerce — even though its 27% share of the vote arguably entitled it to six chairmanships. It chose to hand one to DIKO, allowing Nikolas Papadopoulos’s party to hold on to the three committees it had in the previous parliament — Finance, Audit, and Education — despite losing both vote share and a parliamentary seat. AKEL received five committees — Labour, Interior, Human Rights, Refugees, and Agriculture. ELAM received three — Defence, Environment, and Transport. What unfolded over those days left a deeply unpleasant taste. It showed that certain parties are still running the same tired playbook. It also showed that the so-called anti-establishment parties — entering parliament for the first time — have, within days of the new parliamentary term, already become part of the establishment they claimed to oppose, both through their actions and their public statements. All parties would do well to grasp something basic: the public does not care how many committees each party secured, or who got which chairmanship. What people care about is their own economic survival. Because despite the headline figures showing a healthy economy, there are whole categories of people who cannot make it to the end of the month — crushed by soaring rents, mounting mortgage repayments, punishing energy costs, and fuel prices that refuse to come down. People are also done with announcements that amount to little more than fireworks. They want parliament to turn words into action — to lean hard on the executive and deliver. If the parties want to honour their pre-election commitments and rebuild the public’s trust, they need to change course now, while there is still time. If they carry on at this rate for the next five years, the public will turn its back on them. And this time, it will not be offering another chance. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News EU vote on US trade deal is set to bring tariff peace, but for how long? France, Britain push Hormuz mission as truce nears, but Iran’s stance key UK court upholds Britain’s ban on Palestine Action group Magnitude 6.6 quake strikes southern Philippines, no damage expected Cyprus sends countrywide CY-Alert test in missing person simulation George Pol Georghiou leads the June sale at Cypria Auctions Rare 18th century embroideries from Skyros, Naxos and Siphnos at Cypria Auctions Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.