NICOSIA - Socialist EDEK voted Monday to withdraw from the government coalition.
The decision was taken by the EDEK Central Committee, with 115 votes in favour, eight against and three abstentions. In his speech, EDEK President Yiannakis Omirou spoke of his party’s ''total disagreement'' with President Demetris Christofias' strategy on the Cyprus problem. Omirou said that EDEK supported Christofias in the second round of the presidential elections in February 2008 on the basis of written commitments that had not been kept.
But today, he added, “we can say with certainty, that those commitments have not been kept and ''despite EDEK’s continuous appeals and efforts to change the course, there has been no positive response''. In his speech, Omirou told the party Central Committee that EDEK must withdraw from the coalition government, saying this is a duty and a responsibility the party must meet. “It is politically responsible and morally correct. Staying in government would be a political paradox as well as morally unacceptable and contrary to the history and the principles of EDEK,” he added. EDEK participated in the government with two Ministers, Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Michalis Polynikis and Minister of Communication and Works Nikos Nikolaides, who will be tendering their resignations to President Christofias.