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5 years ago, Demetris Christofias, a communist, was elected President of the Republic of Cyprus by a good majority. He was very popular and everyone thought he couldn't make as much a hash as the previous Centre-right government. He enjoyed 75% approval ratings (unheard of) after his 100 days.
Over the last 2-3 years, he made blunder after blunder after blunder, not the least of which was converting assets of a few hundred million to a deficit of 7.5 billion (~50% of GDP) due to stupid overspending, mostly populist. He replaced his finance minister 3 times because the fin-mins tried to curb his spending and he replaced the Governor of the Central Bank likewise. The commercial banks were hit by the Greek haircut as a direct result of a mistake by him, with a deficit of 10bn. An error of his judgement caused the electricity supply to be blown up. He favoured corruption and cronyism. In short, he has become a costly liability to us all.
Yesterday, a new right wing President was elected, to the relief of an outstanding majority of the Cypriots. We take note, he cannot be any worse (and I say this as personally slightly leftish of centre). I hope he will be a lot better.
Over the last 2-3 years, he made blunder after blunder after blunder, not the least of which was converting assets of a few hundred million to a deficit of 7.5 billion (~50% of GDP) due to stupid overspending, mostly populist. He replaced his finance minister 3 times because the fin-mins tried to curb his spending and he replaced the Governor of the Central Bank likewise. The commercial banks were hit by the Greek haircut as a direct result of a mistake by him, with a deficit of 10bn. An error of his judgement caused the electricity supply to be blown up. He favoured corruption and cronyism. In short, he has become a costly liability to us all.
Yesterday, a new right wing President was elected, to the relief of an outstanding majority of the Cypriots. We take note, he cannot be any worse (and I say this as personally slightly leftish of centre). I hope he will be a lot better.
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