Diko deputy Zacharias Koulias has never been a politician that could be taken seriously. His mouth has always worked faster than his brain, something that made him eminently quotable and a darling of reporters in search of attention-grabbing soundbites. He has regularly delivered in this respect even though his utterances both in the legislature and in front of the cameras were impulsive outbursts with little or no substance. This earned him maverick status among people who considered him a fun figure, someone not to be taken seriously.
The government, however, took him very seriously after he said at the weekend that on Wednesday, when he was acting president of the republic – in the absence of the president and the president of House of Representatives – as the oldest member of the legislature, he would appoint a new auditor-general. Deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou was on the radio first thing on Monday to explain that what Koulias was threatening to do was out of order, explaining that as acting president he was merely standing in for the president rather than replacing him. He said he had made this point to the Diko deputy, over the phone the previous night, but they agreed to disagree.
For a few hours, the government was in a quandary, over how to deal with Koulias, as president Christodoulides was in New York and House president Annita Demetriou would on Wednesday go to Malta for a two-day visit. In their absence, we would have the scenario of a deputy abusing a ceremonial role to exercise the powers of the president of the republic. That he had no political legitimacy to exercise this role was of no concern to Koulias, whose sole aim was to embarrass Christodoulides for his perceived role in the termination of the service of Odysseas Michaelides as auditor-general.
In the case of Koulias, wisdom does not come with age. Although the role of acting president falls upon him as the oldest member of the House, he is still perfectly capable of making a mockery of this tradition by behaving in an embarrassingly childish way. He wanted to get his own back on the president for not preventing the axing of Michaelides, for whom Koulias had a very high regard. This was no bluff. Koulias, according to Phileleftheros, had found the person he would appoint – economist Stelios Platis – and sounded him out. Platis confirmed to the paper that he had been contacted and that he would have accepted the post if it were offered to him.
Thankfully, the grown-ups eventually took over. Demetriou cancelled her trip to Malta so that she would be acting president in the absence of Christodoulides, thus preventing Koulias putting his childishness into practice. He may have also sacked a minister or two and replaced them with people of his choice. The embarrassment was averted, but this should be a lesson to the president. He must make sure that Demetriou is in the country whenever he is abroad, because the irresponsible Koulias cannot be trusted to fill the role of acting president in any circumstances.
