Parisinou not kicked out of Disy despite Elam MEP nomination

Niovi Parisinou, who served as deputy government spokeswoman under President Nicos Anastasiades, has not yet been kicked out of Disy despite nominating Elam’s Geadis Geadi for the European Parliament elections on Wednesday.

Parisinou was one of the four people who officially nominated Geadi at the Filoxenia conference centre on Wednesday, but insisted it was a purely personal and not a political decision to do so, as the pair are friends.

She told the newspaper Kathimerini that “this is not a matter of party or politicians. I have known Geadis for years, he is my friend. He asked me to nominate him and I said ‘yes’. There is nothing else to it.”

Media reports had surfaced on Thursday that she had been expelled from Disy, but party leader Annita Demetriou told television station ANT1 that a decision on her future will be made after the elections.

Parisinou was not the only notable nominator present on Wednesday, with incumbent Akel MEP Niyazi Kizilyurek having been nominated by Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci.

Speaking at the nomination, Harmanci said, “we are going through a critical period in which, on the one hand, racist and nationalist movements are on the rise in Europe and in Cyprus specifically, and, on the other, wars in which thousands of people have lost their lives in Eastern Europe and the Middle East are being re-legitimised.”

He added that in such a situation, “the meeting and solidarity of all progressive and peace-loving forces which can make their voices heard in the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities are more important than ever.”