A nationalist party running on an explicitly anti-NATO, Eurosceptic, and anti-Turkish platform looks likely to grab a 10% vote share and claim one of Cyprus’ six MEP seats this month.
The National Popular Front (ELAM) is running on a promise to stop the arrival of refugees en masse to the island country and capitalising on a cost of living crisis and the lingering issue of Turkish occupation in northern Cyprus to consolidate third place in national politics.
Founded in 2008 as an effective offshoot of the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party, ELAM, led by longtime leader Christos Christou, came to national prominence in 2016 when the party attained parliamentary representation for the first time.
In contrast to its Greek sister party—banned in 2020 after the arrest of its leadership—ELAM has successfully positioned itself at the forefront of Cypriot politics. Its reformist stance even allowed it to attain membership in the conservative ECR group this April at the behest of the Italian Fratelli delegation.
Party leader Christou has indicated repeatedly that he sees the rise to power of Fratelli d’Italia’s Giorgia Meloni as a model for his party’s ascent. In April, ELAM’s prospective MEP Geadis Geadis warned about the Islamisation of his island and Europe generally at a pre-election meeting of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament. He recognises that fears of weaponized migration are now a major factor for voters, not least after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened to direct the Syrian refugees in Lebanon to Cyprus should Israel expand its operations against the Islamist group.
For decades, Cypriot politics has been dominated by the centrist Democratic Rally (DISY) and the post-communist AKEL party, with the island nation’s thorny relationship with Turkey—like its economic ties with Russia through its disreputable shipping industry—making it something of a European Union outsider.
The closest EU member state to the Middle East, Cyprus’ geographic position has made it a major entry point for Syrian migrants heading to Europe, with the country suspending asylum processing in April due to a sudden influx of refugees arriving from Lebanon. Similar concerns now see the Israeli government making emergency preparations in Cyprus for a temporary port facility should its own sea port in Haifa be shut down by Hezbollah actions.
Meanwhile, the arrest of Azeri and Pakistani nationals in Cyprus—suspected of planning to murder local Jews—has heightened immigration fears a week before Cypriots go to the polls.
