The National Council isn’t a puppet show

Opinion Cyprus problemfidias panayiotoupolitics The National Council isn’t a puppet show Fidias Vouli 1536x1096 Relevant News The National Council isn’t a puppet show 27 July 2026 The occupying power’s endless persecution complex 27 July 2026 Christodoulides and Holguín meet ahead of Guterres’s Cyprus visit 27 July 2026 Andreas Bimbishis 27 July 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber It was set up so that whoever holds the presidency could brief the country’s political leaders and talk through developments on the Cyprus problem with them, seriously. There have been moments when it took genuinely important decisions. There have also been stretches when it degenerated into a stage for party point-scoring and personal vendettas. But even at its worst, when a decision actually had to be made, it made it. Why? Because the political leaders sitting round that table understood their role, and understood what they owed the people of this country. So they parked their grievances, whatever they were, and took a position, whether they sat with the majority or the minority. When it was first set up, the National Council was designed to bring together the leaders of the parliamentary parties. Over time that became the fixed ritual: the party leaders get summoned to the Presidential Palace. Later on, the Speaker of Parliament was added (when he wasn’t already a party leader), along with former presidents of the Republic. Right up until March 2026, the National Council operated within exactly that framework. In this column on 23 March 2026, the day the Council met, I argued that this might well be its last session. In that same column I also raised the question of whether, after May’s elections, the new political landscape would even leave room for the National Council to reconvene and decide anything at all. After the election, President Nikos Christodoulides decided, I’d say, to try his luck, and went ahead and convened the National Council anyway, following the old script. He sent invitations to the leaders of the parties represented in parliament, because that’s just what was expected of him. Nothing much came of that first session, except that Fidias Panayiotou dominated it simply by being everywhere in the media, with more airtime going to what he didn’t say after the Council met than to anything that genuinely got discussed. Which brings us to last Friday’s second session. Then, out of nowhere, on Thursday evening, Fidias’s latest video was doing the rounds everywhere, announcing that he’d be sending a stand-in because, in his own words, he hasn’t got a clue about the Cyprus problem. That went by too. And instead of every self-respecting political leader condemning it, they simply accepted, as a done deal, that he’d be packing off whoever he liked in his place. And there was plenty of real news out of that last National Council, for anyone who bothered to find out. Instead, Saturday was dominated once again by yet another Fidias video, in which he was busy doing absolutely nothing less than mocking and ridiculing the President of the Republic for trying to reach him. I think we’ve seen enough. It’s time to draw a line under this. The National Council is not a puppet show for any Fidias Panayiotou to cast himself as the leading man. It’s an institution, warts and all, that everyone else has a duty to work to protect, the President of the Republic included, the party leaders included. If the National Council is going to be protected as a political institution rather than degraded into a puppet show, the President needs to think again. At the end of the day, sending invitations to the parliamentary party leaders was never anything more than a fixed ritual. It’s not written into any law. And standing practices can be changed. Easily. Because serious developments are coming, and it simply won’t do for everyone to hide behind “standing practice” instead of showing the seriousness the moment demands. Short term, a decision like that might ruffle some feathers. Long term, though, it would protect the very political parties that don’t fancy being extras in somebody else’s puppet show. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News The occupying power’s endless persecution complex Christodoulides and Holguín meet ahead of Guterres’s Cyprus visit Overnight pharmacies on Monday, July 27 Man denies guilt over March Larnaca hostage situation Larnaca acts over giant billboard near kindergarten Police probe Paphos Municipality hiring complaints under suspended Phedonos People mourn in Berlin after vehicle drives into CSD Pride event Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.