Andreas Mavroyiannis signalled on Wednesday that he is moving towards a new candidacy in the 2028 presidential elections, on condition that he has a genuine chance of winning. Speaking on Politis Radio, the former negotiator said the scales were tipping more towards announcing his intention, provided that the momentum he says exists around his name is sustained and strengthened. He made clear he has no interest in a symbolic run. His timeline remains the one he set out in October, with a decision taken together with his associates before the end of the year and an announcement in January. The reason, he explained, is practical, as he returned from abroad on Monday and will travel again before the year is out.
His remarks come two days after Akel general secretary Stefanos Stefanou told Alpha’s Bras De Fer that he already has a person in mind for the candidacy, without naming them. On Mavroyiannis, whom Akel backed in 2023, Stefanou said he is not excluded from the discussion, though that does not mean he is favoured, while on economist Tasos Yiasemides he replied that “no name is in play and every name is”. Stefanou did not rule out running himself and said the party would begin contacts in the coming days with Alma, Volt, the Ecologists and Direct Democracy, giving priority to agreement on policy positions before choosing a candidate. Mavroyiannis insisted on Wednesday that the channel of communication with Akel was and remains open and that relations between them are excellent. He added that he fully respects the party’s procedures, decisions and timelines, and that he is grateful for its support last time.
In an interview with Kathimerini, Mavroyiannis had said he does not believe he can be elected without the support of the left, explicitly asking for Akel’s backing. In October, however, speaking to Alpha, he made clear that he would not wait for the party’s procedures, which he placed towards the end of March or in April, and that an announcement would not be irreversible. If his candidacy stood at 5% in the summer, he said then, it would not be “the end of the world” to withdraw. On Wednesday he repeated that the possibility of reconsidering remains open if, by the summer, his candidacy appears to lack momentum.
Cyprus problem: “something”, but too little
On the Cyprus problem, the former negotiator played down the fact that Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not receive President Christodoulides at the COP31 summit in Antalya, describing it as a matter of courtesy that changes nothing in legal terms. What matters, he said, is that the president was there as the head of state of a UN member state, and he linked Ankara’s stance to the anniversary of the unilateral declaration of independence in the north and the ‘elections’ held there. He described the announcement after Monday’s trilateral meeting with Tufan Erhürman and María Ángela Holguín as “something”, but said it falls far short of even minimal expectations. He sees Turkey’s hand behind it, along with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s visit to the north the previous Friday. In his assessment, Ankara is currently seeking very limited movement so that it is not blamed for the lack of progress.
He believes, however, that the way has opened for a trilateral meeting between António Guterres and the two leaders before the end of the year. The critical question, in his view, is whether this will lead to an informal expanded conference before the secretary-general’s term ends and, with it, Holguín’s mandate, unless it is renewed. The conditions, he said, neither exist yet nor are entirely absent, adding “we are somewhere in the middle”, while such a meeting should at the very least signal a path towards negotiations. Behind Guterres’ moves he sees the intention to leave a legacy, so that his successor does not have to start from scratch.
