Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 99-03-03

Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Wednesday, March 03, 1999

Clerides under fire from all sides

PRESIDENT Clerides was on the receiving end of criticism from two sources yesterday, regarding two separate issues.

Haravghi gave prominence to Akel's attack on the president for what it described as a "new political slip". Akel felt that Clerides' statement about the Greek acceptance of a "de facto administration" in the occupied north was a political mistake that gave out the wrong messages and had negative consequences for the Greek side.

It was not the first time the president had committed such a mistake, which gave political circles cause for concern, the paper said. In the past he had said Turkish settlers would stay and also spoke of 'external and internal sovereignty'. Diko also attacked Clerides, saying that his comment played into the hands of those who supported the recognition of the pseudo- state.

Alithia went on the counter-offensive, accusing House President Spyros Kyprianou of torpedoing Clerides' attempt to get a "political dialogue" - aimed at securing consensus on the government's economic measures - going with the party leaders.

Kyprianou had put the success of the dialogue in jeopardy by making public a letter he had sent to Clerides. His party had not decided whether it would participate in the dialogue with Clerides. Akel took a similar stand to Diko, claiming it had no intention to bail out the government now that unpopular decisions had to be taken.

Simerini, underlining the need for the government to increase revenue, said the fiscal deficit was expected to reach £300 million in 1999, which was 5.9 per cent of GDP. This would cause problems in the EU accession course as the limit for the fiscal deficit, set by the Maastricht guidelines, was three per cent.

The main reasons for the widening deficit was a combination of a fall in revenue and increase in spending. The government had lost £127 million in import tax revenue from Customs Union 1998 and had not imposed any new taxes to compensate. It also followed an expansionist monetary policy in order to stimulate demand and to cover the inelastic public sector payroll.

Phileleftheros reported that the German government still insisted that the Turkish Cypriots should take part in Cyprus' membership talks with the EU. Bonn had been treating this as a priority issue, the paper said. The envoy of the EU presidency, Detlef Ranzau would be arriving in Cyprus on Sunday to test the ground.

Ranzau would meet Rauf Denktash to discuss the accession talks. The participation of the Turkish Cypriots was also raised by the German foreign minister in a letter he had sent to his Cypriot counterpart. Ranzau would also try to persuade Denktash to agree to a new round of talks with President Clerides, the paper said.

Politis, in a report from its US correspondent, said that Washington was very worried about the deterioration of Greek-Turkish relations and feared that Ankara would provoke a heated incident. The US was particularly worried because Ankara had severed all contacts with Athens and was refusing to respond to US calls for restraint with regard to the Ocalan affair.

The US would be sending State Department official Thomas Miller to the area with a brief to restore the lines of communication between Ankara and Athens, the paper said.

Machi reported that a Monday morning bomb explosion under a company van was intended to frighten the company's owner who is a witness in a bank robbery case.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article