Former Cypriot foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides has won the island’s presidential runoff, according to official results.
With all the votes counted, Christodoulides won 51.9 per cent of the vote against 48.1 per cent for his rival Andreas Mavroyiannis, a veteran diplomat.
Christodoulides, 49, served as a government spokesman and then foreign minister in the two administrations of outgoing President Nicos Anastasiades.
Christodoulides ran as an independent and as president is expected to face significant opposition from both major parties, the ruling centre-right Democratic Rally and the communist Akel. Many Democratic Rally supporters blamed Christodoulides for running against party leader Averof Neofytou, who failed to make it into the runoff.
The ruling party decided not to formally back either candidate. Anastasiades, a former Democratic Rally leader, called for the bickering in his party to stop but hinted that Christodoulides was the candidate of his choice.
Analysts expect that a Christodoulides government will move away from reviving stalemated peace talks to form a bizonal, bicommunal federation and move closer to supporting a two-state solution.
“The election results imply that hardliners on the Cyprus issue outweigh [pro-reunification] ones,” said Cleopatra Kitti, senior policy adviser of Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy, a think-tank. Reunification of Cyprus has been a top priority for every president since the 1974 invasion.
During his campaign, Christodoulides was supported by a coalition of small parties including the far-right National Popular Front, which has links to Greece’s Golden Dawn party, according to Kitti. “What unites these parties is a nationalist strand on the Cyprus issue and xenophobia on migration,” she said.
Andreas Mavroyiannis, 66, a veteran diplomat, was backed by Akel. He has served as Cyprus ambassador to the UN and as the chief negotiator of the Greek Cypriot community in talks on the reunification of the ethnically divided island, which has been split since Turkey’s invasion in 1974.
On other issues, Christodoulides is expected to retain a careful balance between supporting a softer stance towards Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but not to the extent it would anger the EU and US.
“Given Christodoulides’s party backers, you might see a tougher line on any new EU sanctions on Russia. At the same time, he will want to ensure that the US arms embargo [on Cyprus] remains suspended, so I don’t expect him to be totally hard line either,” said Fiona Mullens, director of Sapienta consultancy based in Nicosia.
The new government will be expected to tackle challenges such as high inflation and a cost of living crisis, upgrading the energy grid and a rise in irregular migration that has made Cyprus one of the leading EU members per capita for asylum applications.
“The first policy priority will be upgrading the outdated electricity infrastructure to handle renewables and to cut dependence on high-emission diesel and heavy fuel oil,” said Mullens.
