As in the two previous EP elections, voters in Cyprus opted for candidates from Dysi, Akel, Diko and Edek to represent them at the European Parliament.
Lefteris Christoforou (Dysi), Costas Mavrides (Diko) and Demetris Papadakis (Edek) will return to Brussels to serve a second term, while Yiorgos Georgiou (Akel), Loucas Fourlas (Dysi) and Niyazi Kizilyurek (Akel) – Cyprus’ first Turkish Cypriot MEP – were elected for the first time.
Loucas Fourlas was the top-voted candidate in Sunday’s elections as he received 43,156 votes, Christoforou came in second with 39,616, Akel’s Georgiou and Kizilyurek received 27,063 and 25,051 votes, respectively, while Diko’s Mavrides received 21,155 votes and Edek’s Papadakis 11,789.
Loucas Fourlas (Dysi)
Loucas Fourlas was born in 1969 in Limassol. He studied Economics and Political Sciences in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. During his student years he served as vice president of Protoporia, Dysi’s student body and president of the student body of Cypriots abroad (Efek).
He worked as a journalist, editor-in-chief and presenter for 23 years. In 2006 he undertook studies in investigative journalism and reporting conflicts in Columbia and George Washington universities in the USA.
In 2008, he served as press secretary in the presidential campaign of Dysi’s Ioannis Kasoulides.
Between 2017-2019 he was the spokesman of the House of Representatives.
He is an ambassador of the charitable foundation Elpida and founder of the initiative “I swim with OYK for our own Little Heroes.”
Lefteris Christoforou was born in Famagusta in 1963. He studied Economics and received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
He was a representative of Disy in the Famagusta constituency from 1996-2014. He is the former Chairman of the House Standing Committee for Areas in Proximity to the Ceasefire Line and of the House Standing Committee on Trade and Industry. He is also a former member of the House Standing Committee on Refugees-Enclaved-Missing-Adversely Affected Persons. He was also a member of the delegation of the House to the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy.
He is currently the vice-president of Dysi.
Since 2014 Christoforou is a Member of the European Parliament, Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats).
Yiorgos Georgiou was born in 1963 in Nicosia. He studied Greek Philology in the University of Athens (1983-1987). During his student years he served in Akel’s student body, Proodeftiki and later in Edon.
He worked as a teacher and vice-principal.
In 2011 and 2016 he was elected in the House of Representatives with Akel in the district of Larnaca. He is a member of the Parliamentary Committees on the Environment, on Legal Affairs and on Education.
He also served in the board of CyBC for three years.
Niyazi Kizilyurek was born in 1959 in the mixed village of Potamia. He fled to Louroujina along with his family due to the intercommunal violence of 1964.
After completing high school, he went to University of Bremen, where he graduated with a BA and MA in Sociology, Politics and Economics in 1983. He completed his PhD at the same university, with a thesis on the Cyprus problem.
In 1995, he entered the University of Cyprus as a lecturer. In 2013, he was elected Dean of the School of Humanities and as of 2016, he is a professor of political history.
He produced the documentary”Our Wall” with Panicos Chrysanthou, later winning the Apdi Ä°pekçi Peace Award for the documentary in 1997.
In 2014, Kızılyürek became one of the advisers of President Anastasiades on Turkey in the Geostrategic Advisory Council.
Kızılyürek has authored around 20 books, including ‘Glafkos Clerides: The Path of a Country’. He speaks Turkish, Greek, English, German and French.
Costas Mavrides (Diko)
Costas Mavrides was born in 1962 in Kato Dikomo, Kerynia. He holds a BsC and an MA in Economic from Rutgers University, USA (1987-1990). He undertook studies at a doctoral level at Houston University.
He worked as an accountant and later as an academic at the University of Cyprus and the Cyprus University of Technology where he taught Economics, Accountancy and Finance. He served in portfolio management in the Ministry of Labour.
Since 2008 he is an elected member of Diko’s central committee.
He was elected in the European Parliament in 2014 and is a member of the Group of Socialist and Democrats (S&D). He is a member of the EP Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee on International trade. He also served in the delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee and the delegation on relations with Israel.
Demetris Papadakis was born in 1966 in Famagusta. After the invasion of 1974 he relocated to Limassol with his family. He studied at the Athens University of Economics and Business.
During his student years he served as president of the student movement Agonas and as a Secretary general of EFEK Athens. He also served as president of Edek’s youth wing.
In 2011 he became secretary of Edek’s central committee, a post which he held until 2014 when he was elected as a member of the European Parliament. In Brussels, he serves as a member of the Group of Socialist and Democrats (S&D) and in the Committee on Foreign Affairs and as a substitute member in the Committees on Regional Development and on Petitions.
He is a member in the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee and a substitute member in the Delegation for relations with the countries of Central America.
Read more:
https://in-cyprus.com/three-meps-re-elected-first-turkish-cypriot-heading-to-ep/
