Tonight Nikos Christodoulides will certainly present many of the achievements from his year in office. However, the question remains as to why these accomplishments have not impacted his popularity.
Moreover, why he will present his report under the shadow of a series of polls that show a very negative image of him and his government?
Despite successfully leveraging the “era of image” pre-election, after winning, he forgot to transition from the image of the friendly family man, the “one of us,” to that of a capable leader tasked by the people to eradicate entrenched mentalities and practices of partisan, familial, or other transactions and services.
Citizens did not expect miracles upon his election, but they judged his actions based on their expectations for him to act against established logic and mentalities. For instance, the uproar over the appointment of advisors (including a 19-year-old at the Ministry of Tourism) was met with the government’s response that they were merely following procedures left by their predecessors. This was a significant misstep. Citizens did not vote for Nikos Christodoulides to repeat the actions of his predecessors.
Parallel to the President, Annita Demetriou currently enjoys high popularity ratings. However, Demetriou is not judged on her executive decisions affecting society and the country, as she does not govern. She is judged solely on her positive presence, much like Christodoulides was before his election when he had a 67% popularity rating (now 47%).
His popularity remained unaffected even when the trivial exchanges he had via SMS with his then associate, Manolis, were leaked in an attempt to discredit him. (Now, Manolis supports Annita and Diplaros, likely exchanging trivial messages with them as well). Citizens were unaffected because they trusted him to change everything and rid them of old mentalities.
What the government spokesman commented yesterday, citing the achievement of reaching investment grade by all rating agencies in the first year, does not resonate with the public or in polls. More impactful are issues like the handling of the advisor uproar, glaringly failed appointments, and the controversy over the use of a state vehicle for taking children to school. These incidents tarnish the government’s image and simultaneously erode trust, affecting more critical issues like electricity or fuel prices, and even the deadlock in the Cyprus issue, for which the current government or President may not be responsible.
In the era of image and communication tricks, polls play a leading role. Recent polls, marking the first year of governance, all showing a decline in popularity, are not just “momentary tools”; they contribute to a complete negation by creating impressions. It’s not the polls that have a problem; it’s the politician who chose to build on creating impressions and public favour, rather than laying foundations through work and results, even if public favour takes time to come.
Nikos Christodoulides has four more years; he is not judged now for his five-year term. In this first year, there was no significant event for which he could be held responsible that would decrease his popularity. Neither a tragedy like Mari (Christofias’ popularity fell to 39% after Mari) nor a passport scandal (Anastasiades’ dropped to 41% after the scandal) occurred.
What is being judged now is what he built with the expectations he created. His ability to govern and rectify the country will be assessed in the future.
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