Clinging on? The Cypriot Greens

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Notes

1. Akamas is a north-western peninsula of Cyprus, of stunning natural beauty. Efforts to declare it a national park have long stumbled on local opposition.

2. Papadopoulos, who was elected at the second round with 51.5%, was also backed by a coalition with a combined 56% of the vote at the 2001 parliamentary election. The extent to which KOP is a ‘co-ruling’ party is an issue of debate: although supportive, in general, of Papadopoulos's government, Greens were nevertheless quite critical on a number of issues. Thus, during the 2006 election campaign KOP was accused by all other parties of standing with ‘one foot on each boat’ (I owe this information to Aggelos Seppos). Yet, after the election, KOP communicated to the president its ‘wish to participate in any national governing body’ (KOP, 2006b), a request which was not satisfied.

3. The plan was soundly rejected by the Greek Cypriots (75.8%), while it was accepted by the Turkish Cypriots (64.9%). Since a positive vote was needed by both communities, the plan was eventually withdrawn.

4. Yet KOP had introduced a 1/3 minimum threshold for women (or men) candidates for the June 2004 European parliament elections ‘in accordance to the practice of the European Greens’ (Simerini, 15 January 2004).

5. Interestingly, the two latter suggestions are not implemented within the party itself.

6. A view shared by all Cypriot parties, as claimed by Katsourides (2003: 1).

7. A questionnaire (effectively the ‘core questionnaire’ devised for the European Green Parties Members Survey 2001–2003, coordinated by Wolfgang Ruedig) was handed out at the party's annual conference (November 2004) and mailed to party members not attending the conference (February 2005). In total, 374 questionnaires were distributed. The response rate was very low (less than 11%), rendering all relevant comments herein suggestive rather than descriptive.

8. The reader should note that in Cyprus the proportion of foreign citizens is very high compared to other European countries (European Commission, 2002: 48).

9. When KOP's delegates met with the Europeans Greens' representatives, the latter were reprimanded for, among other issues, ‘their decision to conduct this meeting on occupied Cyprus’ and were warned that ‘doing so would put under strain the KOP-European Greens' relations’ (KOP, 2006a).

10. For example, one has to account for the fact that it is only at the capital area of Nicosia that Greens saw their strength decline at the 2006 election, an area which has been so far their champion (see Appendix Table A1).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Iosif Botetzagias

The author gratefully acknowledges the Cyprus Green Party's support in covering the expenses for the reproduction and mailing of the questionnaires and the assistance and support of Melina Menelaou and Savvas Filippou while conducting the survey of Party's members. Special thanks go to John Barry and Aggelos Seppos for their comments on earlier drafts of the paper