The debate that has opened within the Democratic Rally (DISY) ahead of the 2028 presidential elections risks turning into something far smaller than the party’s real problem. Candidacies, internal procedures, accusations of “defectors” and the constant revisiting of 2023 are taking up ever more space. So are arguments over what was or was not said at a dinner in a fish tavern, and the intervention of publisher Frixos Koulermos in DISY’s affairs to impose Averof Neofytou as candidate.
And so, amid petty squabbling and whispers in the absence of politics, DISY is heading without a compass towards the internal election on 28 November to choose its candidate for 2028. The contest follows the withdrawal of Annita Demetriou and the official announcements by Averof Neofytou and George Pamborides.
The question
What is the most important question? What kind of party does DISY want to be in the Cyprus of the next decade? If it fails to answer this, there is a risk that the internal elections will simply choose a face without resolving the crisis of direction. And then the introspection will not end on 28 November. It will merely change form.
DISY’s problem did not begin today. The traumatic experience of the 2023 presidential elections left a deep political and emotional rift. One part of the party felt that its candidate had been abandoned. Another felt that the leadership had failed to grasp the changes in society in time. A third sought political expression beyond the party’s boundaries. Three years on, the mistake would be for DISY to keep treating 2023 as a courtroom in which some will be found guilty and others innocent. Great parties do not survive because everyone agrees about the past. They survive because they can agree about the future.
The contradiction
Herein lies the greatest contradiction of the current debate. The European centre-right faces enormous ideological challenges: competitiveness, migration, security, demographics, artificial intelligence, energy costs and strategic autonomy. Yet public debate within DISY keeps returning to who betrayed whom. Who dined with whom, and at which fish tavern, with certain meetings even being ascribed metaphysical significance. This is not merely a communication problem. It is a failure to produce political thought.
The European centre-right today finds itself in a paradoxical position. The European People’s Party remains the largest political force in the European Parliament, so it would be wrong to speak of a general collapse. In the long term, however, the dominance of Europe’s two traditional political families has shrunk considerably. The combined share of the EPP and the Socialists fell from 66% in the 1999-2004 term to around 44% in the period before the 2024 European elections.
At the same time, pressure on centre-right parties from the populist and radical right is growing. In Germany, Friedrich Merz’s CDU faces the rise of the AfD, while in France Marine Le Pen now appears as a frontrunner in the battle for the 2027 presidency.
The dilemma for the centre-right is therefore fundamental. Will it try to compete with the populists by copying their language and simplifications, or will it redefine a proposition of its own? DISY faces the same question on a corresponding scale.
The answer cannot be a shift towards a vague, “harder” right-wing discourse. Nor can it be a retreat into a politically colourless middle ground in which ideological differences disappear.
The liberal centre-right makes sense only if it combines things that are often presented today as incompatible. These include economic freedom and social mobility, fiscal responsibility and social protection, strong borders and the rule of law, a European orientation and the defence of the national interest, and reform and institutional stability. This is the ideological ground on which DISY could rebuild itself.
Policy pillars
The first pillar must be the economy, but not the economic policy of the 1990s. Europe today faces problems of productivity, high energy costs, technological lag and demographic pressure. The Draghi report and the new European competitiveness agenda have placed innovation, investment, a single capital market, energy and the reduction of strategic dependencies at the centre.
For DISY, this should translate into one specific question. What is the economic model of the Cyprus of 2035?
Invoking the “free economy” is no longer enough. The party needs positions on productivity, technology, housing, the tax system, the green transition, human capital and the creation of Cypriot businesses capable of growing internationally.
The second pillar is the state. The liberal centre-right does not mean a weak state. It means a smaller state where it intervenes without reason and a stronger one where it is needed. That means swift justice, an effective public service, digitalisation, performance evaluation, the fight against corruption and strong institutions.
The greatest threat to a liberal party is not only statism. It is also the clientelist conception of the state.
The third pillar must be security and migration. Here too, the European centre-right is changing. The EPP itself now speaks of effective control of external borders, the return of those not entitled to protection and action against smugglers. At the same time, it supports attracting, through legal routes, the talent the European economy needs.
This is precisely where a distinction must be drawn between the serious centre-right and populism. What is required is control without xenophobia, order without authoritarianism, and enforcement of the law without compromising the rule of law.
Europe and the Cyprus problem
The fourth pillar is Europe and the Cyprus problem. DISY was founded as a party with a clear Western and European orientation. Today Europe is debating precisely the issues that only a few years ago were considered secondary. It wants common defence, energy security, strategic autonomy and geopolitical power. For 2026, the EPP has placed European “independence” and the reduction of strategic dependencies at the heart of its political platform.
Cyprus cannot follow this debate as a spectator. A modern centre-right party should link the Cyprus problem to a comprehensive strategy on European defence, the Eastern Mediterranean, energy interconnections and Cyprus’s role in the new security environment.
Political culture
Finally, there is a fifth issue, which concerns political culture. The liberal centre-right cannot be a party in which a dissenting view is branded as betrayal. If DISY wants to remain a broad political family, it must be able to embrace conservatives, economic and social liberals and moderate centre-right voters. It cannot keep administering tests of party loyalty.
America offers a useful cautionary example here. Political polarisation has widened the ideological gap between the parties, but society itself remains far more complex. The 2026 Pew survey shows that significant segments of both Republicans and Democrats do not fully identify with their party’s ideological position. Major parties are coalitions of different social and ideological currents. When they turn into communities of political orthodoxy, in the spirit of “I want a pure DISY at 15%”, they shrink. That is why DISY’s current crisis may prove either destructive or creative.
What matters is not only whether Giorgos Pamborides, Averof Neofytou or anyone else prevails. None of the party’s leading figures has so far shown that they can grasp, and above all confront, the challenges facing their party. That applies to Annita Demetriou as party president and to Giorgos Pamborides and Averof Neofytou as contenders for the presidential nomination. Their failure allows Nikos Christodoulides, who has already failed as President, to harbour hopes for 2028, with clientelist relations as his weapon.
In short, the real internal contest should not revolve around dinners and comic references to deals struck in fish taverns, as Averof Neofytou is attempting. Still less should it revolve around meetings on Pindarou Street chaperoned by a publisher. It should revolve around five questions for 2035: which economy, which state, which social model, what place for Cyprus in Europe, and what solution to the national problem.
That is where politics must return, since its role is to solve people’s problems. Unfortunately, Averof, Annita and Pamborides all appear to treat politics more as spoils than as a tool in the service of citizens. Annita Demetriou did, admittedly, offer some encouraging signs by withdrawing from the race for the nomination on Thursday. Giorgos Pamborides is trying to capitalise on this by courting her voters. Averof, on the other hand, wants to run for the presidency for all the wrong reasons.
First, because, as he says, he was betrayed in 2023 by Anastasiades and Christodoulides. Second, because in 2026 Annita owes him the presidency of the House: Ms Demetriou cannot have everything for herself, so he deserves a second chance regardless of results and polls.
I have the impression that with this apolitical approach, combined with arguments worthy of a neighbourhood coffee shop, no party can survive a defeat.
