Cyprus-Forum.com

[boulio]

your one to talk insan the minute someone questions turkey,you bring up your famous phrase"hellenic elite" dont be a hippocrite.

[cannedmoose]

My experience of the current government is that each minister has his own views concerning the Cyprus Problem. I have been following the public speeches and expressed opinions of various ministers, and I have come to the conclusion that their opinions sharply diverge. This should not surprise us, since the government is a coalition of five political parties.

Alex, I'm still coming slowly to grips with Cypriot politics (and becoming more disillusioned as I do so, I have to admit), so I'd be grateful if you can explain something to me. In the British system, the party leaders tightly control ministerial announcements and by-and-large manage to present a united front on whatever the party line is on a particular issue. I guess that because coalitions are a rarity in the UK, I have never seen one in my lifetime, it's a difficult analogy to make.

But, even with a 5-party coalition, are there no controls exerted from the leaders of the coalition on what individual ministers express? Do the coalition parties not agree a line on an issue and stick to it? If not, and the ministers are essentially free to express their views as lone wolves, it seems a bizarre way to run a government.

I'd be interested in your perspective on this... as well as that of others

[cannedmoose]

Returning to the main issue here, the Zaman article says that Theodorou's message was delivered in a speech in New York. Unless this was to a private audience under restrictive rules (in which case how did this become public), then if he did make these comments, they should be attributable and more importantly the text of his speech should be traceable.

I'm not on a witchhunt here, but if he did make these comments, it is an important issue that should be pursued. If he didn't, Zaman (and Alithia) should publish a retraction.

[MicAtCyp]

Cannedmoose,
according to the constitution the executive power is NOT on the presidents hands.It is in the hands of the Council of Ministers to which the Presedent just presides.Over the years however it proved that the only one who takes decisions for the Cyprus problem is the President himself and the Minister of Exterior. The rest of the Ministers are lets say some sort of Heads.Most of them are completely ignorant, and just follow what the general director (a high ranking Government employee) of the Ministry tells them.

Any Minister can have his personal views on the Cyprus issue as long as those views don't cause a problem to the President. In other words he cannot use his personal views to opose the policy of the President on the Cyprus issue, because that would mean s/he will be substituted the very next day.The fact is that the Ministers are dealing with the duties of their Ministry only.

The most striking example is the Minister of Interior (Andreas Christou member of Akel) who was among the supporters of the Anan Plan. Just recently he said if he was presented the Anan Plan today he would still vote yes. Yet Papadopoulos says he is one of his most successful Ministers because he does an excellent job in his Ministry. What matters is the job he does at his Ministry...

So as you can see coallitions rather serve in sharing the excecutive power of the various braches of the Government,

[cannedmoose]

Thanks for that MicAtCyp, an interesting insight.