Parties that were left out of Tuesday’s talks that Finance Minister Makis Keravnos had with members of Diko, Dipa and Disy about his tax reform proposal, understandably, went on the offensive at the House finance committee meeting held the following day. Deputies of the excluded parties – Elam, Greens – said that the meeting was a violation of constitutional order, while Akel, which had also been left out, claimed that Diko and Disy were organising side-meetings in order to “prevent the taxation of wealth.”
Their anger was justified, considering the finance minister had chosen to keep almost half the deputies in the dark while he engaged in negotiations with parties representing the rest of the deputies. Given that all deputies in the House, regardless of their political affiliations, are entitled to a full briefing by the finance minister, it seemed wrong for Keravnos to engage in negotiations with only half of them. Then again, the objective is to secure the approval of his tax reform and the end justifies the means.
It appears that having secured Disy support, the government would have enough votes to have its six tax reform proposals approved. With Disy on its side, having discussed and agreed the party’s proposed amendments, the government must now feel confident that the tax reform, which must be in place by January 1, will be approved before the end of the year.
What is rather worrying is that the first tax reform undertaken in 22 years will be passed in record time. The six bills were tabled at the beginning of November, and the government wants them approved before the end of the year, during the same time that the legislature will be examining and debating the 2026 state budget. The tax reform bills should have been tabled in September, to give adequate time for discussion and approval. As the government arrogantly refused to grant adequate time for discussion, the tax reform should have been made to wait for another year.
That would have been the responsible thing to do, but instead of taking this prudent stand, Disy, has inexplicably decided to bail out the government. Its representatives were reportedly asked to attend the meeting with Keravnos by Diko and not only went along but the party subsequently agreed to vote through the tax reform. By so doing, it was sending the message that it is on the same wavelength as President Nikos Christodoulides, proving this in practice by backing his tax reform bill. At the same time Disy claims it is an opposition party.
The optics do not support this claim. Disy’s stand on tax reform has confirmed, perhaps unintentionally, that it also loosely belongs to the alliance of pro-Christodoulides parties that include Diko, Dipa and Edek, despite claiming it is in opposition. It seems the only party that is in opposition is Akel.
