When Nikos Christodoulides was elected president in February 2023, we saw him on a TV show intervening to resolve the housing issue of a man who was living in his car with his 10-year-old daughter.
As journalist Kostas Konstantinou wrote, “Mr. Giorgos and his daughter Despina were enduring a long ordeal due to bureaucracy and the lack of compassion from the relevant state authorities. Father and daughter were forced to live for almost a year and a half in an old car under appalling conditions. The father encountered closed doors, and when they did open, they would soon shut again.”
That was until the newly elected president saw the show’s trailer featuring their story and intervened, resulting in “those who had closed the door on Mr. Giorgos contacting him to invite him to their offices to find solutions,” as the journalist wrote, expressing the hope that “this story will serve as the starting point for the new president to fix the shortcomings of the state machinery, which is supposed to practically support those in need.”
Just a few days ago, a man in a wheelchair was killed when his mobility scooter broke down in the middle of the road, and a fellow villager attempted to help by towing him with a vehicle.
Months earlier, the man had submitted a request directly to the president for help acquiring a new wheelchair—a promise the president made but which was never fulfilled, perhaps because the request got stuck in the bureaucratic machinery.
Last Saturday, journalist Ioanna Mantziipa highlighted the case of a 29-year-old who is essentially stateless.
Born in the Philippines, he came to Cyprus with his mother, who married a Cypriot and had other children.
The young man lived in Cyprus for 20 years, attended Greek schools, and speaks fluent Greek, but he is not recognised as a Cypriot citizen.
After visiting the Philippines, he found himself unable to return to Cyprus, as he is not acknowledged as a Cypriot.
Upon reading the story, the president instructed the Deputy Ministry of Migration to resolve the issue within a week so that the young man could return and reunite with his mother, half-siblings, and friends.
The young man is now waiting by the phone in the Philippines, a place that, although his birthplace, is unfamiliar to him.
These three cases, along with many others, could and should be resolved without the need for journalists’ mediation or the intervention of the president.
We don’t need a philanthropic president; we need services that fulfil their role.