European Interest

Cyprus: the first Turkish Cypriot MEP elected

Flickr/Jon Culver/CC BY-NC 2.0

The electoral results in Cyprus didn’t affect significantly the position of the parties within the electorate.

The ruling Democratic Rally (DISY), an EPP member, marked a slight win over the moderate communist Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL). The two parties won 2 seats each.

The nationalist center-left Democratic Party and the Socialist EDEK won also one seat each.

For the first time Cyprus will send to the European Parliament a Turkish Cypriot, the AKEL candidate Niyazi Kızılyürek.

Kızılyürek is a professor of political history and the Dean of the School of Humanities in the University of Cyprus.

The neo-Nazi party National Popular Front (ELAM), which was founded in 2008 by the Greek Golden Down, failed to win any seat.

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