Demetris Christofias

Demetris Christofias (Δημήτρης Χριστόφιας ; 29 August 1946 – 21 June 2019) was a Cypriot politician, who served President of Cyprus from 2008 to 2013.

Demetris Christofias was born on 29 August 1946 in Kato Dikomo, British Cyprus, to a Greek Cypriot family.

He had a sister who once donated her kidney to him for a life-saving kidney transplant.

He received his high school education at Nicosia Commercial Lyceum, from which he graduated in 1964.

He spent five years in Moscow, where he earned a PhD in history from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

At the age of 14, Christofias joined PEOM, a progressive high school student organisation.

At the age of 18, he joined PEO Trade Unions and the Progressive Party of Working People's youth branch United Democratic Youth Organisation.

In 1969, at the 5th Congress of EDON, he was elected member of the Central Council.

In 1974 Christofias was elected to the post of the Central Organising Secretary of EDON and in 1977 to the post of General Secretary.

In 1976 he was elected as a member of the Nicosia-Kyrenia District Committee of AKEL, and in 1982 – at the 15th Congress of AKEL – he was elected as a member of the Central Committee of the Party.

In July 1986, Christofias was elected as an alternate member of the Political Bureau of AKEL.

After the 16th Congress of AKEL, held in November 1986, he was elected as a full member of the Political Bureau, and in 1987 (after terminating his service as General Secretary of EDON) he was elected as a member of the AKEL Secretariat.

He served in the latter post until 1987.

In April 1988, following the death of Ezekias Papaioannou, he was elected as General Secretary of AKEL, a post he held until 2009.

Christofias was elected as a Member of the House of Representatives for the first time in 1991 and was re-elected in the subsequent parliamentary elections of 1996 and 2001.

He was previously President of the House of Representatives from 2001 to 2008 and General Secretary of the Progressive Party of Working People from 1988 to 2009.

On 7 June 2001, he was elected as President of the House of Representatives.

He was re-elected as President of the House of Representatives in 2006.

In his function as General Secretary of AKEL and President of the House of Representatives, he was a Member of the National Council, a supreme advisory body to the President of the Republic.

Christofias was ex-officio chairman of the House Standing Committee on Selection and chairman of the ad hoc House Standing Committee on Rules of Procedure and of the Special House Standing Committee on Declaration and Examination of Property.

He was also president of the executive committees of the Cyprus group to the Inter-Parliamentary Union and of the Cyprus branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

Taking on the challenge of responding to the 2007-8 Global Financial Crisis, he implemented a popular and wide-ranging social program, increasing pensions and the minimum wage.

At the end of his term, however, the local banking system collapsed.

Putting blame on the banks, he attempted to raise taxes on them as a way of funding the island's recovery, but failed to pass this into legislation.

Also citing deadlock in reunification talks, he announced that he would not seek re-election, becoming the first Cypriot leader to opt-out of running for a second term.

He remains the only communist head of state in the history of both Cyprus and the European Union.

The first round of the February 2008 presidential election, held on 17 February, saw a close result between the three leading candidates—Christofias, Ioannis Kasoulides of DISY, and the incumbent Tassos Papadopoulos—Christofias narrowly placing second with 33.3% of the vote, behind Kasoulidis with 33.5%.

Christofias and Kasoulidis participated in a second round on 24 February, for which Christofias received the backing of Papadopoulos's party DIKO.

Christofias went on to win the election with 53.37% of the vote.

After his success, he stated his support for the closure of Cyprus' British military bases and pledged to restart talks to find a solution to the Cyprus problem.

Addressing a crowd in Nicosia, he said he looked forward to "substantial cooperation for the benefit of both communities".

Christofias was sworn in as president at a ceremony in the House of Representatives on 28 February 2008, vowing that "the solution of the Cyprus problem will be the top priority of [his] government".

Although he was proud to be a communist, he said he would leave the free market economy alone.

While much of the focus outside of Cyprus was on his communist background and education in Moscow, voters were more concerned with a solution to the Cyprus problem.

Christofias appointed his government on 29 February 2008.

His first government was a coalition between his own party AKEL, Marios Garoyian's Democratic Party and Yiannakis Omirou's Movement for Social Democracy.

Christofias started talks with Mehmet Ali Talat on the reunification of Cyprus as a bizonal federal state, but his hopes for Greek Cypriot approval of such a plan were soon scotched by the nationalists' victory in Northern Cyprus' 2009 parliamentary elections.

On 28 July 2011, Cyprus's cabinet tendered its resignation bowing to political and public pressure after a massive munitions blast at Evangelos Florakis Naval Base on 11 July 2011.

Several thousand people upset by the Cypriot government's failure to dispose of the explosives had held a demonstration in the capital Nicosia on 12 July, demanding the resignation of Christofias.

On 3 October 2011, the results of the investigation regarding the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion were released to the public, placing the blame for the incident mainly on President Christofias, holding him “personally and institutionally responsible” for the blast.