Status: 02/12/2023 8:08 p.m
Cyprus’s former foreign minister, Christodoulides, has been elected the new president of the EU country. He won almost 52 percent of the votes in the runoff against left-wing candidate Mavroyiannis.
Former Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulidis becomes the new President of Cyprus. In the runoff, the conservative politician received 51.9 percent of the votes, according to the official results. Left-wing politician Andreas Mavrogiannis, also a diplomat, got 48.1 percent.
Christodoulidis, as an independent candidate, was supported by centrist and center-right parties, while Mavrogiannis was supported by a left-wing party. The incumbent President Nikos Anastasiades was not allowed to stand again. In the first round of elections a week ago, Christodoulides had won 32 percent of the vote, while Mavrogiannis, with 29.6 percent, ousted the ruling party’s Disy candidate to take second place.
Christodoulides campaigned with a message of unity. Apparently that went down well with many voters. Mavrogiannis had presented himself as a candidate for change. But voters may have been put off by the fact that Mavrogiannis was backed by the Akel party, which has communist roots. Akel is accused of bringing Cyprus to the brink of bankruptcy ten years ago. It is also criticized for taking a pro-Russian stance.
The election was important because the president, elected directly by the people, appoints and leads the government. The Turkish Cypriot north did not take part in the vote, only the southern part of the island voted.
The future president of EU member Cyprus faces challenges such as resuming talks on the political reunification of the two parts of the island, as well as migration, labor disputes and corruption scandals. After the military coup in Greece in 1974, a separate, internationally unrecognized state was proclaimed in northern Cyprus with the support of Turkey.