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The ten-year-itch seems to be going away, with the island’s two leaders setting their own pace of official and social meetings that are gradually re-introducing a glimmer of hope that the Cyprus problem could, after all, be solved.
Their “walkabout” on both sides of the Green Line last Saturday was aimed at raising public support for the resumption of talks, regardless of the huge obstacles on both sides of the divide. They succeeded, to some extent.
However, the momentum that Mustafa Akinci and Nicos Anastasiades have created, has so far produced muted support for two basic reasons: the economic crisis has hurt households in both communities, and the rejectionist front, that has yet to propose any pragmatic alternative to help solve the island’s division (or even the economy), is feeding into this dire situation gradually building up old scaremongering tactics that a solution will demolish everything that everyone has worked so hard to build.
On the demolition front, we have the politicians to thank, who, in their incompetence allowed a chain of events that led to the March 2013 bailout plan. Unemployment has remained at doggedly high levels with the present administration struggling to lower it, as it also sets a target to exit the economic adjustment plan some time next year.
Reforms are trickling through with the most important of all, privatisations, meeting more objection than the “devil-devised” Annan plan. The absence of a truly ruling party and its failure to strike up alliances in parliament means that the administration’s hands will remain tied until after the elections for a new assembly eleven months from now. Which is why opposition forces want all talk about privatisations moved back to beyond 2016, hoping that a change in the political scene in the House of Representatives will also stop the government’s plan in its tracks.
Fortunately, we have seen several ministers in the present administration digging in for long battles, aiming to return the economy into a recovery mode, as soon as possible.
The financial state of the private and public sectors will also determine the outcome of the peace talks, which have been upgraded to ‘reunification’ talks, judging from the tweets of both leaders.
Anastasiades declared “we ought to deliver peace and prosperity” and Akinci responded with “We had a good start. Continuing well and concluding well is much more important. We should all work to not cause new disappointments.”
Let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past. And in the meantime, if Anastasiades can win the gamble of getting the Cyprus economy on its feet again, he will find it much easier to push through with a settlement agenda.
