Nikos Christodoulides Elected

Nicos Anastasiades was stepping down after two terms as president of the Republic of Cyprus, so the 2023 election was an open contest. Nikos Christodoulides, born in 1973 in Geroskipou, near Paphos, had been Anastasiades’s government spokesman from 2014 and his foreign minister from 2018 until January 2022, when he resigned to run. He left the ruling Democratic Rally (DISY) and stood as an independent, while DISY backed its own leader, Averof Neophytou.

In the first round on 5 February, Christodoulides came first with 32 per cent. Andreas Mavroyiannis, a former diplomat who had been the Greek Cypriot chief negotiator in the federation talks, came second with 29.6 per cent, backed by the left wing party AKEL. Neophytou came third, the first time DISY had failed to reach a presidential runoff. Corruption, the cost of living, migration and the deadlock over reunification dominated the campaign.

In the runoff on 12 February 2023 Christodoulides won with 51.9 per cent to Mavroyiannis’s 48.1 per cent, on a turnout of about 72 per cent. It was the closest presidential race since 1998. He was sworn in on 28 February.

On the Cyprus problem, commentators expected him to take a harder line in the stalled UN talks. In office he asked the UN Secretary General to appoint a special envoy, and in January 2024 the Colombian diplomat María Ángela Holguín arrived on the island to sound out both sides, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

His first years in office coincided with Ersin Tatar’s push for a two state settlement, and formal negotiations did not restart. At enlarged UN meetings in Geneva in March 2025 and New York in July 2025 the sides agreed on some practical steps, such as a youth committee, demining and cemetery restoration, while new crossing points remained under discussion. The election of Tufan Erhürman as Turkish Cypriot leader in October 2025 gave Christodoulides a new counterpart.