In Cyprus, we only wake up to the meaning of a law once we’ve watched its damage unfold. Only then do we realise what our Parliament, in its supposed wisdom, has actually done. This was no exception. Political parties, civil society groups, legal experts -even the OSCE- had warned against the protest law. But warnings were not enough. It took the sight of riot police in full armour beating and pepper-spraying peaceful demonstrators protesting the genocide in Gaza for the public to finally grasp what their lawmakers had unleashed.
What happened outside the Foreign Ministry last week was nothing more than the Cyprus Police enforcing the new law as they themselves interpreted it.
A familiar pattern has emerged over the years. No matter how hard the Police try to justify the unjustifiable, the outcome is usually the same. When protests are anti-government, anti-racist, or anti-corruption, the Police invoke “the law” to explain their heavy-handed tactics. Yet when far-right hooligans organize anti-migrant marches, hunters block highways, or ELAM supporters chant extremist slogans and intimidate migrants, the Police suddenly choose restraint, claiming they want to prevent things from escalating.
These double standards reveal a deeper problem within the Force. Whether they like hearing it or not, it is clear they feel much more comfortable policing leftists, anti-fascists, and anti-racists than nationalists or right-wing groups. Worse still, they enforce the law selectively, depending on when it suits them. If 100 people protest for Gaza, they get beaten. If 2,000 people protest about wildfires and express anger toward the government, the Police manage the crowd instead.
One vivid example: a demonstration in Limassol a few months ago, before the new protest law was passed. ELAM organized a rally and march under the pretext of rising crime by foreigners. Instead of stopping it under hate-speech and anti-racism laws, the Police politely supervised from a distance. That same evening, around 100 to 150 anti-fascists gathered for a counter-protest. Suddenly, the Police went into full alert, and the contrast was striking. Although the ELAM rally had nearly a thousand participants, there were far more officers at the smaller anti-fascist gathering. Fully armed riot units stood within arm’s reach, while at the ELAM march they watched calmly from afar. Needless to say, the water cannon “Aiantas” was parked near the anti-fascists, and an official Police photographer was snapping their faces one by one, something that never happened on the other side. Not to mention the masked men with helmets trailing behind the ELAM march.
This is only one of many examples of how the Police operate, and immediate corrective measures are needed. It is hard to believe these patterns are coincidental or that the Police simply reacted to circumstances.
Now that they hold this unacceptable law in their hands, things are bound to get worse. The majority of political parties have given the Police a tool they cannot handle responsibly. The mentality today is that to disperse a group of 150 protesters, including children and elderly people, officers must beat them and use pepper spray. There is no understanding that ten or fifteen calm, patient officers could have simply spoken to the protesters and achieved the same goal: clearing the road. Instead, they now spend their time looking for a “coordinator,” meaning someone they can hold legally responsible for anything that happens during a protest, essentially a scapegoat to shift blame away from the Police’s own failures in handling the situation.
Last but not least: the substance. What we are experiencing in Cyprus right now feels dystopian. A foreign, authoritarian state that kills civilians and children indiscriminately seems to be calling the shots here. Netanyahu decides, and Christodoulides obeys. We have seen it repeatedly: from the arrest of a man waving a Palestinian flag over a football pitch, to the directives on graffiti, and now to the protest outside the Foreign Ministry. What exactly do they owe him?