Apres mois le deluge

'Apres mois le deluge' (After me the deluge, i.e. total collapse) said Louis XV who ran the French monarchy into the ground. The phrase has since become synonymous with arrogant politicians and business leaders alike. Now we see this attitude being adopted by Tassos who is pulling the strings behind the scenes to make sure the collapse comes but he will be there to save the country in its hour of need.

His primary objective is to weaken AKEL and destroy DIKO. Why? Because he cannot forgive Christofias for calling him a liar and uncovering his machinations at Burgenstock in the case of AKEL and never cared much for DIKO which he just used to come to power. Remember Spyros Kyprianou accused him of being the mastermind behind the plot aginst him in 1977 and was always wary of him, even when Enosis Kentrou joined DIKO. Tassos got his revenge on Spyros by taking control of DIKO and slowly replacing Spyros' men with his own, culminating in the ousting of Nicos Kleanthous by Marios Karoyan and making his godson Kenevezos the General Secretary.

Remember also that Tassos was the original chameleon, compared to whom Lillikas is a poor clone. Tassos was co-founder of the Enaion Komma with Glafkos Clerides, ditched the party in 1976 and stood as an independent to get a seat in the Vouli, set up Enosis Kentrou in opposition to DIKO, was rabidly anti-communist all of his political life and founded Kyrikas (with Lazaros Mavrou as leader writer) to fight federation as a solution. One still wonders how Christofias was taken in in 2003 unless like the majority of Cypriots he has a short-term memory.

That is the Why. Now for the How:

First the weakening of AKEL. By forcing Christofias back into the tripartite alliance (trimerous) Tassos knows that Christofias will have a difficult time governing the country. He will have to rely on the support of DISY to push for a solution, which will make him look weak in the eyes of his grassroot members and he will see any attempt to introduce economic or social change blocked by DIKO and DISY.

Meanwhile EDEK which will insist on the Ministry of Defence once again will make hay as they did before. At the same time Nicos Katsourides, the man seduced by Tassos with an entree to Nicosia high society, will continue sidelining AKEL ideologues the way he did with Andreas Christou and Eleni Mavrou.

The destruction of DIKO. The theory is that whenever DIKO was in power with DISY, it lost members. The unpalatable fact is that there is a section of people, mostly civil servants, army, police etc., who back the governing party no matter which it is in the hope of promotions, appointments, government tenders etc., and when AKEL becomes the governing party they will vote for it and cut down DIKO once again in the next parliamentary elections. AKEL will kick it out of the trimerous because it will be too small to be useful but Christofias will find it just as difficult to pass any legislation.

With DIKO in disarray Enosis Kentrou will be revived as the only reliable party for the rightwing, DISY having been discredited by its support for Akel on the Cyprus solution.

Finally, why did Tassos not support a DISY-DIKO alliance? Because none of the above could be brought into play.