The entry of Averof Neophytou and Giorgos Pamboridis into the race for the Democratic Rally (DISY) presidential nomination, following the withdrawal of party leader Annita Demetriou, has changed the political landscape within Cyprus’s main right-wing party.
The developments have effectively placed DISY before a strategic dilemma. Until recently, the party’s political planning and public rhetoric had been geared towards preparing Demetriou to contest the 2028 presidential elections. Her withdrawal, however, raises questions about whether the strategy pursued since 2023 remains relevant and whether it can accommodate candidates with markedly different political profiles.
A party emerging from internal divisions
Demetriou was elected DISY leader shortly after the 2023 presidential elections, taking over a party deeply affected by internal divisions.
During the election campaign, the party had split between supporters of Neophytou, known as the Averof faction, and those who backed Nikos Christodoulides. The disagreement over which candidate to support in the second round further exposed those divisions.
DISY’s enlarged Political Bureau opted to allow members to vote according to their conscience. Nevertheless, a number of party supporters backed AKEL candidate Andreas Mavroyiannis, while the majority supported Christodoulides, who went on to win the presidency.
His victory created a second centre of political influence within the right-wing camp, challenging DISY’s traditional dominance. At the same time, the far-right ELAM was making increasingly assertive claims to the conservative electorate. Having doubled its share of the vote in the 2021 parliamentary elections, the party began presenting itself more explicitly as the representative of the conservative Right.
A shift to the right
As a party source told Politis, DISY was no longer operating in an uncontested political space but was facing two competitors.
The new leadership and its communications team therefore concluded that a different strategy was needed. Their assessment was that the party should move two steps to the right, placing greater emphasis on its conservative wing to protect its electoral base from ELAM.
The new leadership believed that DISY had adopted liberal positions on several issues in previous years, including LGBTQ+ rights, creating space for ELAM to strengthen its support.
It also considered a renewed connection with the party's traditional right-wing identity necessary. This meant placing greater emphasis on church services and memorial ceremonies honouring national heroes, while adopting a tougher stance towards AKEL.
The objective was to prevent ELAM from establishing itself as the principal opponent of the Left and claiming the anti-AKEL political space traditionally associated with DISY.
Managing relations with Christodoulides
Towards the new President, DISY adopted a policy of responsible opposition, seeking to avoid alienating party members who had voted for Christodoulides in either round of the 2023 presidential elections.
Demetriou was seen as a figure capable of bridging the party's internal divisions, with restoring unity among its principal priorities.
Christodoulides, however, continued to present himself as a political successor to DISY's policies, repeatedly emphasising his own association with the party. Indeed, his positions on several issues, including Cyprus's Western orientation and its approach towards Israel, have broadly aligned with those of DISY.
The party's post-2023 strategy therefore had to account for the possibility that Christodoulides could be perceived as the more authentic representative of DISY's political tradition if the party leadership distanced itself too sharply from government policy.
According to the assessment of DISY's new leadership, Christodoulides was attempting to politically constrain the party and secure its support from the first round of the next presidential elections.
They also believed he was exploiting AKEL's criticism of the government to position himself as the principal ideological opponent of the Left. This, in turn, helps explain why DISY frequently responded to AKEL's criticism of the government rather than allowing Christodoulides to monopolise the anti-AKEL political narrative.
The strategy pursued by DISY since 2023 was therefore designed to preserve its position as the principal representative of the Right while strengthening Demetriou's potential candidacy against Christodoulides in 2028.
The intention was to reduce his influence within the party without provoking a direct confrontation that might alienate his supporters. In this way, Demetriou could potentially win over DISY voters who had backed Christodoulides in 2023.
However, the strategy did little to weaken Christodoulides politically. DISY now finds itself facing a formidable opponent once again.
The question is whether the political approach developed around Demetriou can serve the interests of either Neophytou or Pamboridis. Both have political characteristics that differ considerably from those of the former prospective candidate, making an adjustment in strategy increasingly necessary.
The question of a second-round agreement
The debate over DISY's electoral strategy has intensified following intervention by former President of the Republic and honorary DISY president Nicos Anastasiades.
Anastasiades suggested that DISY and Christodoulides should reach a preliminary agreement to support one another in the second round of the 2028 presidential elections. Under such an arrangement, whichever side failed to reach the run-off would endorse the other.
The proposal provoked a strong reaction from DISY vice-president Giannis Karousos, who described it as sending a message of defeatism. The party's parliamentary spokesman, Demetris Demetriou, took a similar position.
By contrast, DISY deputy leader Efthymios Diplaros supported the idea of a preliminary agreement, as did Michalis Ioannides, coordinator of the Council for Monitoring Government Work.
Anastasiades's intervention was interpreted as reflecting his concern that AKEL could win the next presidential elections. However, the disagreement has revealed a deeper division within DISY over the identity of its principal political opponent in 2028.
Distinguishing between ideological and strategic opponents
The distinction between ideological and strategic opponents was explored in an article published last Sunday on the AlphaNews.live website by former Defence Minister Christoforos Fokaides, who now heads the Institute for Political and Democratic Studies.
Fokaides argued that DISY needed to distinguish between the Left as its ideological opponent and the strategic competition it faces from Christodoulides and ELAM.
While AKEL remains DISY's ideological rival, he argued, the party's more immediate strategic challenge comes from two political forces competing for its traditional voters: Christodoulides and ELAM.
In his view, an anti-AKEL strategy cannot address this problem. Indeed, making opposition to AKEL the central electoral objective could work against DISY's interests and serve Christodoulides's electoral ambitions.
Fokaides warned that an unconditional commitment to preventing AKEL from returning to power could legitimise cooperation with ELAM and push DISY voters towards what they might regard as their second-best option: Christodoulides.
If voters believe that DISY's candidate is certain to reach the second round, some could choose to support Christodoulides in the first round to ensure that AKEL is excluded from the run-off.
He also considered the possibility of a second round featuring the DISY candidate and Christodoulides. In such a scenario, he argued, DISY would struggle to appeal to left-wing voters if its campaign had been dominated by strongly anti-AKEL rhetoric.
The politics of political outreach
The debate over anti-AKEL politics has brought renewed attention to the concept of political outreach, or ypervasi, first employed by Anastasiades during the 2008 presidential elections.
At the time, DISY's candidate was Ioannis Kasoulides, who was competing against AKEL's Demetris Christofias and DIKO's Tassos Papadopoulos.
Anastasiades, then DISY leader, introduced the idea of political outreach to prepare the party to support Christofias in the event that Kasoulides failed to reach the second round.
Ultimately, Papadopoulos was eliminated, meaning that the dilemma never arose. Nevertheless, DISY subsequently adopted a responsible approach towards the AKEL government, particularly on the Cyprus issue.
AKEL also pursued a similar policy during the first Anastasiades administration, maintaining a constructive stance on the Cyprus issue until the collapse of the negotiations at Crans-Montana.
The approach was based on the recognition that DISY and AKEL shared common ground on the national question, despite their ideological differences.
A similar understanding was informally reflected in the 2023 presidential run-off, when a number of DISY supporters voted for Mavroyiannis. However, many party officials, particularly those aligned with Christodoulides, regarded that choice as a mistake.
Why political outreach worries Christodoulides
The prospect of renewed political cooperation between DISY and AKEL appears to concern Christodoulides.
Last August, the President used the term 'DISAKEL' in response to criticism from the two parties over appointments to semi-governmental organisations.
The term, originally coined by rejectionist political circles, was intended to put pressure on DISY and AKEL and undermine the common front they have periodically formed on the Cyprus issue.
Christodoulides is aware that a successful policy of political outreach between the two parties could significantly weaken his prospects in a second-round presidential contest.
For DISY, the challenge is therefore no longer simply to identify its presidential candidate. It must also decide what kind of political strategy that candidate will represent.
The withdrawal of Demetriou has brought that question to the forefront. With Neophytou and Pamboridis now entering the contest, the party faces a choice between continuing to prioritise its traditional confrontation with the Left or developing a broader strategy that directly addresses the competition for its own electorate.
How DISY resolves that dilemma could prove decisive in determining not only its prospects in 2028, but also its political identity in the years ahead.
