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Cyprus Political Culture in the Vassiliou Era
The election of George Vassiliou in February 1988 was
unexpected. Although many Cypriots were increasingly
disaffected
because of the lack of progress in the intercommunal talks
and the
incumbent's reputation for passivity and ineffectiveness,
the
results were an upset. The first round, held on February
14, gave
a plurality and 33.3 percent to Glafkos Clerides of DISY.
Vassiliou, an independent, came in second, with 30.1
percent, and
the incumbent, Spyros Kyprianou of DIKO, came in third
with 27.3
percent. Kyprianou was defeated, according to Cypriot
press
opinion, because of inflexibility in the settlement talks
and
because of party maneuvering, including an unpopular
tactical
alliance with the communist party, AKEL.
The runoff between Clerides and Vassiliou was held on
February
21, and Vassiliou won by a little over 10,000 votes. He
polled 51.6
percent; Clerides, a veteran of Cypriot politics and
acting
president in 1974, polled 48.4 percent. Ironically, in the
final
contest the two men were in substantial agreement over the
settlement issue; both expressed eagerness to engage in
talks with
Denktas, and neither made withdrawal of Turkish troops a
precondition for talks. Some believe that Clerides
narrowly missed
victory because of his past associations with right-wing
political
groups.
Born in Famagusta in 1931, Vassiliou completed
secondary school
in Cyprus, and spent more than a decade studying and
working in
Europe. He received a doctorate in economics in Hungary.
Upon his
return to Cyprus in 1962, he founded and remained
president of the
Middle East Marketing Research Bureau, the largest
consultancy in
the region, with offices in eleven countries.
Vassiliou's campaign emphasized his wish to invigorate
the
settlement process. He offered to meet directly with both
thenPrime Minister Turgut Özal of Turkey and his Turkish
Cypriot
counterpart, Denktas. Without a strong party base,
Vassiliou also
decided to resurrect the National Council, first created
by
Makarios, with the hope that the political parties meeting
together
could forge a collective and consensus-based policy toward
the
settlement process. Vassiliou proceeded to work out new
rules with
the party leaders, including guidelines on which issues
required
their unanimous consent. He pledged to put any settlement
plan to
the people in a referendum. But his seemingly liberal
views on a
settlement were tempered by his policy commitment to
reorganize and
reinforce civil defense and increase defense spending.
A number of factors brought Vassiliou to power. The
electorate,
to be sure, was frustrated by the impasse in the
settlement process
and welcomed someone who spoke of new ideas and energy.
More
broadly, the vote may have signaled the end of the
Makarios era,
and the desire for new leaders, rather than Makarios's
heir
apparent.
Vassiliou brought to the presidential palace skills
learned in
the private sector, such as prompt decision making,
cost-benefit
analysis, marketing, and open competition, that promised
livelier
and more effective policy making. Some Cypriots welcomed
his
attempt to bring corporate boardroom concepts into
politics. Others
resented it. In his first two years in office, Vassiliou
was
constrained by the island's experienced politicians, who
had
different agendas, and by Turkish Cypriot strategies that
did not
embrace the spirit of Vassiliou's settlement message.
The new president tried to introduce fresh faces into
the
executive branch. His first cabinet had only two ministers
who had
previously held office: George Iacovou continued to serve
as
foreign minister, ensuring continuity in external
relations, and
Christodoulos Veniamin took the post of interior minister,
which he
had held, along with other cabinet posts, between 1975 and
1985. In
May 1990, President Vassiliou replaced four of his cabinet
ministers and appointed several who had not served in
previous
cabinets. For the most part, the outside appointees were
people who
had the approval of one or more of the major parties.
Vassiliou had promised first and foremost to achieve
progress
in the talks with Turkish Cypriots, through intercommunal
talks and
negotiations with Turkey. However, in his first two years
he made
no breakthrough toward a settlement.
He achieved more in other areas. In the 1988 election
campaign,
Vassiliou spoke of his desire to make changes in the civil
service,
to end the spoils system that had created a large and
inefficient
public sector. He pledged moves toward a meritocracy, and
promised
to bring into government energetic, talented people from
private
sector. During his first two years in office, he was
unable to
replace the incumbent appointees to the Public Service
Commission
with his own candidates, because the parliament did not
approve
funds for it. Nor did another campaign promise, to create
a
government ombudsman as a clearinghouse for complaints,
make
headway in the first two years of his presidency. He was
also
unable to wrest from the political parties appointments to
quasigovernmental posts such as utilities boards. He failed to
pursue
vigorously a campaign pledge to investigate charges of
corruption
in the police force.
Vassiliou's modest gains in these efforts were
constrained by
the parties' resistance to the businessman-president's
ideas. The
parliament failed to approve many of his requests for new
positions, such as political appointments for ministerial
special
assistants and even experts to assist the president.
Vassiliou did manage to dilute the parties' power to
some
extent. Political patronage jobs, formerly the perquisites
of the
largest party, were shared among the major parties,
reflecting
Vassiliou's desire for a consensus-based political system.
Vassiliou often chose for appointed positions associates
whose
skills he respected but who were also acceptable to one or
more of
the major parties. This power sharing with the parties,
however,
kept the new president from keeping his promise to reduce
the size
of the public sector.
Yet Vassiliou's intelligence, energy, and worldliness
were
valued by Cyprus's friends overseas. Vassiliou visited all
major
European capitals, traveled in the United States, and
attended
multilateral conferences to explain the Cyprus situation
and enlist
support for new settlement efforts. He was troubled that
the
dramatic and triumphant world events of 1989 and 1990
distracted
world attention from the Cyprus problem, and he was
concerned about
the prospects for its neglect. His presidency,
nevertheless,
although it did not produce dramatic results, won respect
and
attention from a number of friendly governments.
Data as of January 1991
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