When a society is worn down by the relentless pressure of scandals that surface almost daily – centred on corruption, abuse of power and arbitrariness – and when citizens search desperately for officials they can trust again, being the first lady and at the same time seeking and securing a promotion to the post of ambassador, with a salary starting at €65,000 and exceeding €80,000, inevitably casts a shadow.
The appointment of Philippa Karsera was made by a Public Service Commission appointed in 2021 by the previous government, at a time when her spouse was serving as foreign minister. However independent the commission may be, it reports annually to the sitting President of the Republic – in this case, Karsera’s husband – while the reappointment of its members in 15 months’ time will be decided by Nikos Christodoulides. In addition, Karsera received recommendations from her superior, the foreign minister of the Christodoulides government, who also happens to be subordinate to her spouse.
Even if everything was done in full compliance with the law, even if the procedures were beyond reproach, even if Karsera deserved the post and is indeed the most capable candidate, there is a moral dimension that the presidential couple appear unable or unwilling to grasp. However ambitious someone may be, however strong the need for validation, control, power or dominance, in a society of rational beings there is always a limit. All the more so when one holds the highest office in the land. In this case, those limits were crossed long ago.
The result is to hand an already exhausted society further cause to wonder whether the role of first lady was now deemed insufficient, or whether ambassadorial posts will simply never open again for anyone else. Looking at the presidential couple’s track record, what emerges effortlessly is a disregard for limits that borders on greed, rooted in a persistent fear of losing a position, an opportunity or a role. That fear pushes them to stretch their reach in every direction, even when they already have everything.
This pattern also applies to the President himself. In 2019, after Nikos Christodoulides won a nine-year legal battle against a decision by the University of Cyprus not to appoint him as a lecturer on procedural grounds, he requested unpaid leave so that, once he stepped down as foreign minister, he could continue an academic career – despite harbouring presidential ambitions at the time. The negative response, citing incompatibility, led him to the Supreme Court. One should also recall the findings of the Audit Office concerning allowances he received irregularly between 2014 and 2018, when he was formally a civil servant at the foreign ministry while seconded to the presidential palace.
The President and his spouse need to understand – and they owe this to society – that they now stand at the pinnacle of power and have secured lifelong status and all the associated benefits. No one is going to take those away from them.
If they were to let something go, it would be recognised and appreciated and, to speak in the language they know best, it would be better for their image.