Saturday, March 1, 2008

Communist victory in Cyprus

In an election result that surprised me, the
Communist Party has won the election for president in Cyprus. What does this mean? I think it depends on just how quickly the reunification of the island happens, and the extent to which the Communist Party honors their pre-election promise to give the right-wing party control over the economy. If the reunification takes up a considerable portion of the new regime's energy and drags out for a long time, I doubt the Communists will spend much time on domestic reform. If, however, the reunification happens quickly, and they decide to get their hands dirty in Communist reform, then I fear the reunified Cyprus will wind up looking a lot more like the north part of the island (GDP per capita around $7,000US) than the south (GDP per capita around $22,000US).

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