With European Parliament elections underway, President Nicos Anastasiades and party leaders have been urging voters to go to the polls and cast their ballot.
“This is yet another day that democracy is celebrating, a day we decide on the large family of the European Union, a day when we want to send a strong message about the Europe we want, a Europe with a common foreign policy, a single monetary policy, a policy that will be a policy of cohesion and solidarity, and especially a Europe with common borders,” President Anastasiades said.
He said everyone had an obligation to participate in these elections and welcomed the increased participation of Turkish Cypriots.
Disy president Averoff Neophytou said Cyprus needs the EU more than ever as he urged everyone to participate in the elections.
Speaking after casting his vote at a polling station in Nicosia, Neophytou said that “today is the time of the European Union, the moment when all of us should weigh the benefits of our participation, but also the responsibility of our abstention.”
Akel general secretary Andros Kyprianou noted that the EU determines our lives to a great extent. “It is important to give our own opinion about the course we should take in Cyprus and in Europe,” he said.
Speaking after casting his vote at a polling station in Nicosia, Kyprianou said that “this whole period, we were doing the talking, and now it is time for the people to express their own opinion with their vote. “I hope that they will participate in this process,” he said.
Today’s elections are a good opportunity to send the message that “our future can and must be free and democratic,” Diko president Nicholas Papadopoulos said, after casting his vote.
“I exercised my right to vote as a proud Cypriot and a European citizen,” Papadopoulos said, adding that “today is a beautiful Summer day and we can all together send the message that our future can and must be free and democratic.”
The European Elections are crucial for Cyprus due Turkey’s provocative actions and its invasion of the exclusive economic zone of the Republic of Cyprus, President of Edek Marinos Sizopoulos said.
Speaking after casting his vote at a polling station in Limassol, Sizopoulos said that the European Union “with proper handling and unity can protect our sovereign rights and our homeland,” adding that this is the time “to promote everything that unites us.”.
Today is the day that the citizens are sending their own messages to the political leadership, president of far right ELAM Christos Christou said after voting in Nicosia.
“Today is the day that the people will show if we want to build a different Europe and not the Europe of memoranda, haircuts, where the average citizens cannot know their future, if they will have a job tomorrow, if they will be unemployed, if they and their families will be able to survive.”
President of the Cyprus Green Party – Citizens’ Cooperation George Perdikis expressed hope on Sunday that the citizens would exercise their right to vote in the European Elections.
Speaking after casting his vote at a polling station in Nicosia, Perdikis expressed hope they would vote, despite the fact that the political parties once again have failed to give the Cypriots the right to vote crossparty.
“Nevertheless, I believe that the citizens will take the case of democracy into their own hands and participate in the election process, stating that they are present and demanding their future, their own future within a united Europe, a united Cyprus,” he added.
Decisions that affect our lives are taken at the European Parliament, President of the Citizens’ Alliance Yiorgos Lillikas said on Sunday, and called on all Cypriot citizens to exercise their right to vote in the European Elections.
Speaking after casting his vote at a polling station in Nicosia, Lillikas said “decisions concerning us, decisions that affect our lives, are taken at the European Parliament, and that is why I call on all Cypriot citizens to participate in the elections, to vote freely, far from extremities, with mutual respect, to vote and choose those they believe are the best to represent us at the European parliament, those they consider to be the most suitable to promote our rights, to strive and demand our rights, and for a better democratic European Union with democratic freedoms, which will be interested in the people and the citizens.”
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