Voices
Scrolling through social media in the morning, as well as traditional news outlets, is enough to make anyone feel nauseous. From the revelations about Jeffrey Epstein to Annie Alexui, from mayors of ghost municipalities to world leaders and global tech oligarchs, reports of paedophilia, rape, violence against women, migrant boat tragedies, bribery, and fraud appear with relentless frequency and intensity.
The moral advantage of democracy is eroding. I do not wish to moralise, nor can I predict the future, but history shows that moral bankruptcy is usually followed by political and economic collapse. The personal tragedies of victims inevitably affect society as a whole. Those whose interests do not align with the Republic of Cyprus are well aware of this. Be prepared, because these issues will confront us directly.
What are we truly experiencing in Cyprus, Greece, the region, and the world? A tsunami of scandals and corruption with leaders of every rank at the centre. In a single news bulletin, citizens witness events that in earlier times would have taken years to emerge.
The organised state and institutions at all levels appear paralysed. It is as if we are living in the Third French Republic during the Stavisky scandal of 1933-1934, a major political and financial scandal that dominated French politics and, ultimately, contributed to the country’s crushing defeat in the Second World War.
Citizens in the United States and the United Kingdom are in a similar state of shock with the Epstein scandal. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer struggles to respond to the case of Peter Mandelson, who for four decades worked with every Labour leadership, publicly and behind the scenes. Mandelson, whom Starmer appointed ambassador to Washington, is alleged to have leaked sensitive British government financial information to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In the United States, Epstein’s contact list extends from President Donald Trump to the Clintons, and from Elon Musk to Bill Gates. Even university professors such as Noam Chomsky have appeared on the list.
In Cyprus, Videogate led to resignations, while complaints forced DISY MP Nikos Syka off the party ballot, and mayors Phaedon Phaedonos and Pieris Gypsiotis were suspended.
The report by KOP, arrests related to incidents in Larnaca and their links to the underworld, and the accusations made by the now-famous Annie Alexui against everyone, create a picture of absolute corruption that raises doubts about the country’s future. The situation is similar in Greece, where the Tempi rail disaster, issues with OPEKEPE, and the Predator surveillance scandal were joined this week by the deaths of 15 migrants following a collision between their boat and the coastguard. If this does not reflect destabilisation in Greece and Cyprus, it is hard to say what does.
We will get a taste of the risks and instability in the upcoming parliamentary elections in May in Cyprus, and possibly in negotiations over the Cyprus issue. As for any benefits from Cyprus’s EU Council presidency for the country’s image, for now they have been buried under a mountain of scandals. At this pace, the question is not whether worse will come, but when and what form it will take.