Incriminating video, dismissed by officials as a ‘hybrid attack’ has forced resignations of Nikos Christodoulides’s wife and chief of staff
The Cypriot president, Nikos Christodoulides, has said he has “nothing to fear” over a scandal that has forced the resignations of his chief of staff and his wife from a leadership role of a major charity.
As allegations of high-level corruption swirled days after the island assumed the rotating EU presidency, officials insisted the country had been the victim of “hybrid warfare”. The incriminating claims, implicating the president and first lady in a cash for access network, were made in a video uploaded on X.
Breaking his silence four days after the video went viral, Christodoulides, who has faced mounting pressure from coalition partners, put on a brave face as he protested his innocence.
“In such moments of crisis any leader, when his hands are clean, must be calm,” he told reporters on Monday. “I am here. I am publicly taking a position. I have nothing to fear.”
