The far-right ELAM party’s success in getting its first seats in the Cypriot parliament in Sunday’s elections, alongside two other small groups, casts doubt on support for the fragile negotiations to reunify the Greek and Turkish halves of the island.
The Greek-Cypriot nationalist ELAM (National Popular Front) party, which has links to Greece’s neo-fascist Golden Dawn and has been accused of racism against Turkish Cypriots, won two seats in the House of Representatives in Nicosia.
“ELAM’s success in entering parliament is a worrying footnote in the outcome of the elections, in that it points to a broader dissatisfaction with the centrist parties that will need to pull the most weight to achieve reunification,” said James Sawyer, a researcher on Europe, Turkey and Cyprus at the Eurasia Group.
Two other nationalist parties that have opposed talks of a resolution between the divided Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides also won seats for the first time — the left-wing Citizen’s Alliance and right-wing Solidarity Movement.
But voter turnout also hit a record low, at 67 percent. Nicos Anastasiades, the president of Cyprus, acknowledged abstention by nearly a third of the electorate in a statement welcoming the new MPs. “The decision of a big part of the electoral body to abstain from the elections is something that should concern us all,” he said.
Cyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded in 1974, with Greek Cypriots in the south and Turkish Cypriots in the north. Anastasiades’ Greek Cypriot government is recognized around the world except in Turkey, while the Turkish Cypriot government, led by President Mustafa Akıncı, is not recognized by anyone except Turkey.
Anastasiades and Akıncı have been locked in negotiations to solve the so-called Cyprus Problem for the past year, with the aim of putting a plan for reunification to the vote in a referendum later this year.
Turkish Cypriots are largely strongly in favor of a solution which would give them access to the economic and social benefits of being an internationally recognized member of the European Union — from tourism, to international investment, to human rights laws.
Greek Cypriots tend to be more mixed in their viewpoints, but many see reunification as a necessity for economic growth.
Akıncı said Monday that he hopes the results of the parliamentary election are “beneficial” to Greek Cypriots, and urged both sides to turn their full attention to the negotiations. “In order to create a bizonal, bicommunal federal Cyprus, where Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots will live in peace, freedom, equality and security, it is time to act responsibly,” he said in a statement.
Some of the smaller political parties, however, risk being squeezed out of a unified Cypriot parliament. The results of Sunday’s elections raise new — and somewhat unforeseen — concerns about the rise of nationalism among Greek Cypriots.
“The three new parties entering the parliament now are parties that absolutely reject the bizonal, bicommunal federation,” said Andromachi Sophocleous from the Cypriot Puzzle, a non-partisan initiative of Greeks and Turks set up to inform people about the Cypriot division and negotiations. “ELAM is a fascist group, and they stand against not only the solution process, but Turkish Cypriots themselves.”