• +
• -
• Text size

Follow the mail on Twitter.

Topic tags

Waiting for Ms Velculescu’s tan

Recently the rapidly ageing and beleaguered government spokesman Mr. Stefanou told us that state has cash reserves to last till October but there is no way the Government will default on its payments! According to EUROSTAT the unemployed in Cyprus have now reached 11.9% signaling the 3rd biggest 12 month increase amongst the Euro countries, well above the EU average. In high streets all over Cyprus, shops are closing down at an alarming rate and once highly profitable public companies are registering significant losses for the first time.
The million dollar (or euro) question is what action will our government take to try and avert  the total collapse of our economy
The much heralded Russian loan to the tune of 5 billion is still being ‘negotiated’. Speaking to Reuters earlier this week foreign minister Ms Erato Markoulli said that the Russian loan is strictly a two-state affair and that the Russians have not set any conditions or asked for anything in return! With this in mind I can only fathom that this loan is either interest free and payable only, and when, and if we (Cyprus) want, or, it is not a loan but a kindly donation by Mother Russia.
Everything  will be superfluous if the Russians say ‘NYET’. In this case Ms Markoulli will most definitely be proven 100% correct as there will be no conditions set at all.
Onto Troika and this is where the real merry-go-round begins! After a period where everyone seemed to watching the London Olympics or working on his/her tan Mr. Stefanou told us that negotiations continued throughout August on a technocratic level only and that was because the Troikans wanted to work on their tans in August! We shall have to check Ms Velculescu’s tan for proof of this.
Fast forward a few days and our Finance Minister told us that we (government and govt. officials) were in constant dialogue with the Troikans in August and that negotiations were at a ‘very advanced stage’. All that remains he said were a few clarifications requested by them and within the next couple of weeks they should get their answers. Mr Sharly was confident that next time the Troikans are in town (probably October) the first draft of the memorandum can be agreed.
Fast forward a couple of days (yesterday) and Andros Kyprianou (of AKEL) told us that Troika has not tabled any proposals. All they have done he said ‘is thrown a few ideas on the table for which discussions will be held. We are still at a very early stage of the discussions.’
Now who should you believe! Discussions are at a very advanced stage (Sharly) or they have just begun (Kyprianou)? Recent happenings in Kyproulla say that we should believe the latter. This goes some way to confirm the rumour that Christofias has no intention of signing a memorandum (attack on working class etc) and that he is just trying to delay everything till February 2013 when he will triumphantly step down amid rapturous applause as the President who saved Cyprus from the imperialists.