Far-right ELAM party more than doubles its power in parliament, while parties supporting president emerge weakened.
NICOSIA — The Cypriot parliament will become more fragmented following Sunday’s national elections, with the far right gaining ground and anti-establishment newcomers entering the scene.
With all votes counted, the center-right Democratic Rally party (DISY) came first with some 27.2 percent support and managed to hold its 17 seats in parliament, followed by the communist Progressive Party of Working People with 23.9 percent and 15 seats.
The far-right National Popular Front (ELAM) party, an offshoot of the now-defunct Greek neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, emerged in third place with 10.9 percent support and was set to raise its seats in parliament to eight from three, following a similar trend of far-right advances across the EU. Its campaign focused on migration and on Turkey and Turkish Cypriots on the ethnically divided island.
Finance Minister Makis Keravnos said that fragmentation is a pan-European phenomenon and is not unique to Cyprus.
“I’m not worried; I believe these are part of democracy, and the democratic system has a way of self-regulating in the end. This government was not supported by major parties in parliament anyway,” he told POLITICO in an interview on May 23. “What matters is for a government to act rationally, to act as the government of all Cypriots.”
Cyprus — which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU until the end of June — has a presidential system of government and the 56-seated parliament holds limited powers.
The vote is widely seen as a benchmark of political trends ahead of the 2028 presidential election and flags the new alliances President Nikos Christodoulides may need to make if he decides to run for a second term as is widely expected.
“This marks the end of an era for political parties that have been part of the political scene for 50 years,” said Harry Tzimitras, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo Cyprus Centre. “Traditional parties have lost ground to new political movements that seem to enjoy broad popular support.”
“It will become even harder for the government to pass legislations in parliament. There is already an ongoing public debate over whether the National Council — the body where the Cyprus issue is discussed — should be suspended or even abolished,” he added.
Christodoulides, who was a minister in previous DISY governments, was elected president as an independent candidate in 2023.
Two of the three parties that currently support Christodoulides — the Democratic Alignment and the Socialist Party — didn’t make it into parliament. The centrist Democratic Party (DIKO) came fourth with 10 percent of the vote and will get eight parliamentary seats, down from 11 in the previous parliament.
The newly established party by EU lawmaker and YouTube influencer Fidias Panayiotou called Direct Democracy got 5.4 percent and four seats.
Fidias, who ran most of his preelection campaign wearing a clown nose, says he wants to promote a model of participatory politics with direct citizen involvement in decision-making through technology.
Another newcomer that capitalized on public anger toward the establishment is the centrist Citizens for Cyprus party founded by former Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides and was set to get four seats, on 5.8 percent of the vote. Michaelides entered politics on an anti-corruption campaign after being removed from his position as auditor general over “inappropriate behavior.”