Former Cyprus top diplomat Christodoulides elected youngest president

NICOSIA — Former foreign min­ister Nikos Chris­todoulides was on Sunday elected presi­dent of the Republic of Cyprus, becoming at 49 the youngest leader of the divided Mediterra­nean island nation.

The seasoned poli­tician gained 51.92 per cent of the vote in a run-off Sunday, closely beating out communist-backed ca­reer diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis who took 48.08 per cent of ballots.

Widely tapped as a favourite even be­fore last Sunday’s first round of voting, he is seen as an independent backed by centrist par­ties that take a hard line on moribund UN-backed talks on ending the island’s decades-old division.

His candidature sparked a schism with­in the conservative rul­ing DISY party, whose candidate Averof Ne­ofytou was booted out of the race after com­ing in third place in the first round — a first in the party’s history.

Hawkish on peace talks -

Christodoulides served as government spokes­man then foreign min­ister under outgoing President Nicos Anas­tasiades, but quit as minister last June to enter the race.

Christodoulides later found himself in the uncomfortable posi­tion of wooing votes from DISY, after Neofy­tou failed to make the run-off.

DISY would usually be expected to urge its supporters to vote against a communist-backed candidate, but Christodoulides is de­spised by many in the party as a “traitor” who put personal ambition over the interests of the party and the island.

With a doctorate in political science from the University of Ath­ens, the career politi­cian has also studied in Malta and New York.

He launched his dip­lomatic career in 1999, climbing up the ranks until he became for­eign minister in 2018.

He previously con­sidered that the main problems facing the Cypriot electorate were “the cost of living and housing, immigration and the Cyprus prob­lem”, referring to the island’s division.

Talks have been in deep freeze since 2017 to resolve the division that resulted from Tur­key’s 1974 invasion and occupation of the northern third of the island in response to a Greek-sponsored coup.

Christodoulides has long taken a hawkish stance on peace talks.

He has moreover said he is open to forming alliances with extreme-right parties such as ELAM, ultra-nationalists who came in fourth place with six percent of the vote.

Tackling corruption

Christodoulides has also vowed a “zero-tolerance” approach to corruption as the island continues to deal with the fall-out from a cash-for-pass­ports scandal that plagued the previous administration.

Despite having been foreign minister in that cabinet, he managed to escape untainted by the scandal.

He ruffled feathers in September 2020 by blocking a European Union plan to sanction Belarus, saying Cyprus would only agree if the bloc also sanctioned Turkey.

The former foreign minister also failed to take a clear stance on sanctions against Rus­sia over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, earning him crit­icism for his so-called pro-Moscow position.

Cyprus has for dec­ades been home to a sizeable population of Russians.

Another key issue that Christodoulides has vowed to tackle is the topic of migration on the island, where six percent of the 915,000 people living in the south are asylum seekers.

Cyprus is second only to Austria in terms of having the highest proportion of first-time asylum seek­ers across the EU.

The new president has vowed faster processing times for asylum applications, with a target of 3,000 cases per month.