NATO and the crystal ball
Can NATO survive without the participation of the United States? Trump says no. NATO’s secretary general says no. The President of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides – whose country is not a NATO member – says yes. Nikos Christodoulides openly disagreed with the Dutch secretary general, Rutte, sending a message of Cypriot self‑confidence but, above all, of power.
What can we do? We have a President who, like Makarios before him, is too big for Cyprus. He too is wronged by geography. Had he not come from Choulou, and had he not been born in Geroskipou but in Arkansas, he might at this moment be the leader of the planet. And beside him, he would not have “Sandy” as a secretary but someone of the Monica Lewinsky type.
'What I meant was...'
Pamboridis also shook hands with Averof last Wednesday during the submission of candidacies for the parliamentary elections at the “Archangelos” funeral office. A few days earlier, Pamboridis also walked back some statements he had made about Averof, saying that if Averof returned to the party he would find him standing in his way.
Now, sticking his tongue out to the right, he told us that it is entirely legitimate for Averof to seek the Presidency in 2028 if he so wishes. With a few things from his own house, Averof could now, if he wanted, also go to the Presidential Palace.
To be fair, Foullis is a powerful figure in the party at the moment, so no candidate can afford to be in open confrontation with him. Pamboridis, in the polls at the time of writing, is in third place, behind Dimitris and Savia, and is fighting to enter parliament alongside Andreas Konstantinou, Charalambos Petridis and Anastasia Anthousi.
If he does get in, it will be a major success, and he knows he cannot achieve it with Averof against him.
Oh Sandy
If Nikos Clerides ultimately wins the certiorari, the Police will be obliged to return the entire “Sandy” file to him, as well as his mobile phones. More importantly, nothing that was obtained from him will be admissible before a court.
At police headquarters, however, they say they have Sandy’s messages from other sources as well, and that their problem is not the messages but Sandy’s problematic statements. In her initial statements, she said she began fabricating them from 2019 onwards, while in her latest statement she said she fabricated everything in the period 2025–2026.
The problem, they say, would have been resolved by the mobile phone she had in 2020, but that phone has disappeared. The Police are nevertheless expecting a great deal from the Europol laboratory in The Hague, which is examining dozens of Sandy’s messages, in combination with phones, messages and events.
'About the culling...'
Another indication that institutions have been amputated and that the state is not functioning properly is everyone’s insistence on wanting to see the President. Nikos Christodoulides eventually personally called the leader of the unruly livestock farmers and a meeting was arranged so they would not once again turn the motorway into a battlefield.
We wonder what he will tell them, especially if they persist in demanding an end to culling, in violation of what European protocols require. Can the President, as he initially told everyone, change protocols and procedures, creating false hopes for all those involved?
There is also the other explanation, for which he is not the first to set the example. All Presidents have done it. Through the meeting, he humiliates the Minister of Agriculture, the ministry’s permanent secretary, the director of Veterinary Services, as well as the Minister of Justice and the Chief of Police, who are involved in the consultation.
Why does he do it? He certainly will not start a confrontation with the EU. He will do what he knows best. He will promise money and will evidently bypass procedures to pay it, as happened with the fires.
In general, the President is in demand. On Friday, environmental organisations asked to see him. Earlier, educational organisations did the same. In the past, he held meetings on the cost‑of‑living allowance, and so on.
In general, in Cyprus we have no institutions – and we also have no ministers.
Transfer window
In the United States, there is currently a major discussion about the transfer of Giannis Antetokounmpo, but that concerns basketball. In Cyprus, transfers concern politicians, with number one in the discussion being Irene Charalambidou, who made the leap (editor’s note: a play on the Greek word ALMA, also the name of a new political party) – as a child she also played basketball – and left AKEL to stand by Odysseas Michaelides.
In the background, we have a series of political transfers from the Blue team to the Black team. We are talking about a number of DISY figures who failed to get elected and then jumped to ELAM.
We record Marios Pelekanos, the self‑appointed LGBTI disciplinarian, Evgenios Hamboullas, also known as “one bite, two koupepia”, and Andreas Papacharalambous, who thinks blue but dressed in black, otherwise known as Tam Tam Tam.
For Andreas, there are strong indications that he moved towards ELAM with the “blessings” of the presidential circle, with which he has close ties. In the same category falls the move of Andreas Apostolou from EDEK to DIKO, while DIKO also officially welcomed Michalis Giakoumis, formerly of DIPA, strengthening efforts to broaden its appeal in the Centre and attract figures with different political backgrounds.
There were also moves from the Greens, with Ms Attalidou and Ms Xanthou, who are now running in the elections with Volt.
The Schism
“Bring back Tychikos, otherwise there will be a schism.” This is what supporters of the suspended former Metropolitan of Paphos claim in a letter to the Synod, calling on it to reinstate him immediately.
In a post on the website of the “Union of Orthodox Journalists”, under the title “Cyprus: Cry of anguish and warnings of schism in the Church”, reference is made to “serious tremors caused in the Church of Cyprus by the ongoing judicial and ecclesiastical dispute surrounding Metropolitan of Paphos Tychikos, with faithful speaking of manoeuvres and the risk of schism, proceeding with a third open letter to the members of the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus”.
If a schism does occur, however, we will have problems. Under Tychikos’ new doctrine, we will have an issue with non‑Christian delivery drivers. How will we eat pizza if, before every delivery, the delivery driver has to find a priest to bless the pizza?
What will happen to memorial services every Sunday if ‘kollyva’ must not be placed in cups, and how will the Church deal with multinationals if their soft drinks, according to Tychikos, are demonic?
We all understand that if the schism with the Catholics was over who the Holy Spirit proceeds from, the schism with Tychikos is over the fact that the Church does not comply with the rules he lays down.
