A political furor in Cyprus continued on Friday, with President Nikos Christodoulides calling on anyone with damaging information regarding his successful election campaign or his current administration to step forward.
“I would like to publicly call on anyone who has evidence of direct or indirect financial bribery during my election campaign, but also during my time as President of the Republic, to submit it immediately to state authorities,” Christodoulides announced, in his first statements regarding the controversial video about alleged corruption based at the presidential palace.
The uproar was sparked by video footage that first appeared in a post on X from the verified (‘blue check’) account @EmilyTanalyst, with a name of “Emily Thompson” attached along with an avatar of the Ukrainian flag. The brief biography on the account reads: “I am an independent researcher, analyst and lecturer focused mainly on American domestic and foreign policies.” The account was created in July 2022 and as of Friday, after the post, finally exceeded 1,000 followers.
The first real post by the account’s user/s came two days ago. Previously the account only reposted other accounts’ posts, exclusively with political content, or merely replied and always laconically, i.e. “wow”, “exhausting”, “this is going to matter more and more”, “saving this for later” and “hmmm”. Additionally, the text accompanying the video has three words with a “dot-less i”, or “ı”, something not usually available on standard English-language keyboards.
The post came a day after Cyprus assumed the six-month EU Council presidency.
Speaking in Nicosia on Friday, Christodoulides added:
“…today we saw the results of my visit to the United States, with the announcement of American investments in our country. And yes, these companies, which are coming, must also offer social benefits within the framework of corporate social responsibility, for the state – I want to repeat, for the state, something they’re doing in the areas of health, welfare, defense and many other areas.”
