We are turning a new page, AKEL Secretary General Stefanos Stefanou has said, accompanied by the party's MPs, noting that the party had not only increased its percentages, but also its votes during the 2026 Parliamentary Elections.
Responding on several occasions to the slogans from the crowd gathered outside the AKEL offices in Nicosia on the evening of Sunday, 24 May and who were celebrating the party's result in the parliamentary elections, Stefanou began by saying "AKEL is here, united, strong." In Parliament and with the people. With the momentum of our 100-year history and the strength of our politics."
Tonight, the AKEL Secretary General said, a new, upward course is beginning. “A course that marks not only the recovery of our percentages and our votes. But it also marks the recovery of the people’s trust in the party of the people, in AKEL.” We all fought together, he continued, a very difficult battle, in very difficult conditions, and against these conditions we showed what AKEL is. “We have reversed a downward course of many years and now we are opening a new page, always with our eyes turned to the future,” Stefanou said.
The Secretary General said that this did not happen by chance, but because "this party was born from the common man and returns the power it has to the common man." Throughout the election campaign, he said, they proposed what the common man lives with, the problems of everyday life, the problems that plague a very large part of society. "Because we live within society. We do not remember it when there are elections."
Because, he continued, it is a party of society and ordinary people, starting tomorrow (Monday) they will continue their work both inside the new Parliament and outside, in society.
"So today, we are turning a new page with society and the interests of the many at the forefront. We are turning a new page for our Cyprus, for achieving a solution to the Cyprus problem, which will liberate and reunite our land and people. A new page for a great progressive rally against the degradation of workers' rights, against the far right, to support democracy again. This is who we are," he said.
AKEL, the left, the social alliance, said Stefanou, is the strong pole of this progressive front, "with the aim of changing things in the country. Because our country and our people deserve better. And we can give it to them. And we will give it to them."
The AKEL Secretary General thanked from the bottom of his heart – as he said – the thousands who supported the party’s ballots, reiterating that it is important that they had an increase not only in percentages but also in votes. He also thanked the thousands of volunteers who again fought “the good fight and we won it together.” From the bottom of his heart, he repreated, he thanked the candidates who fought this battle with ethics, dignity, merit and stood out from all the other candidates. “We will continue this battle together”.
Stefanos Stefanou also thanked “all of us on the Left and the friends of the Social Alliance who are marching together in this beautiful, wonderful, progressive struggle for our country.” The AKEL Secretary General concluded by shouting the slogan again “Now and always AKEL, AKEL, AKEL” that those gathered around him had previously shouted.
"We are going strong for our Cyprus and our people, as always," he said and descended towards the crowd, greeting those present along with the candidate MPs to the sound of songs. By this time, people are gathered outside the AKEL offices and are watching the results on a giant screen while shouting slogans and setting off fireworks.
(Sources: Reporter, CNA)
