For the sake of a handful of self-styled "patriots", religious opportunists and fascists, conservatives, authoritarians, xenophobes, opponents of pluralism and rejectionists, the Interior Ministry backed down on its decision to remove parents' names from national identity cards.
The Christodoulides government could not withstand the pressure for even a single day. That is hardly surprising, given that it draws its political support from parties that represent precisely these "principles" and "values", as well as from individuals supposedly belonging to the liberal right who have embraced the pretence and hypocrisy of the radical right, which, depending on the circumstances and the audience, can appear in a turban, a cassock or a traditional fustanella.
It is difficult to understand how this "political" act escaped the attention of our President. A man devoted to the traditional family and to national and religious identity, who presents himself as a bulwark against the so-called woke agenda. A centralising figure whose inner circle allows nothing to pass without scrutiny, not for reasons of substance but to protect appearances. Unless, of course, he is expertly manipulating both society and the political system and the "reversal" of the decision was simply a manoeuvre designed to rally his supporters. After all, the race for the 2028 presidential election has already begun and, lacking a party of his own behind him, he may be signalling his political intentions indirectly.
But, Mr President, behind the communications games, electoral calculations and the appeals to supposedly sacred values that are deployed whenever particular audiences need to be reassured, there are people.
There are children who grew up without a father or without a mother. Children from single-parent families. Children born through assisted reproduction. Children who were abandoned. Children who never knew one of their parents. Children who simply do not fit into the family model that you, and others who share your views, have decided is the only "normal" one.
There are wonderful children born to same-sex parents, yet you insist on preserving a system that gives strangers the right to ask them an intrusive question: Why is there a blank space? And they are then forced, with pain or frustration, to explain their story to someone who has no need to know it, a civil servant, a police officer, or simply a stranger who happens to be standing in front of them.
A story that, in reality, has absolutely nothing to do with the need to verify their identity at that particular moment.
You should know, Mr President, that a family does not become stronger because two names are printed on an inanimate identity card. Nor is it threatened if those names are removed.
Fatherhood and motherhood do not derive their value from a field on a national identity document. What matters is presence, care, responsibility and love. Raising children with values of respect rather than rejection, and with empathy rather than prejudice.
But know this as well, Mr President: if the institutions of a democracy require less than twenty-four hours to retreat in the face of those who appoint themselves guardians of family, nation and religion, then we have a problem.
And, as you surely understand, it is a far greater problem than two lines of text on a piece of plastic.
