Nicos Anastasiades

Nicos Anastasiades (Greek: Νίκος Αναστασιάδης [ˈnikos anastasiˈaðis]; born 27 September 1946) is a Greek Cypriot politician who has been President of Cyprus since 2013. Previously, he was the leader of Democratic Rally and a Member of Parliament for Limassol.

Anastasiades is a lawyer by profession, and the founder of law firm "Nicos Chr. Anastasiades & Partners". He graduated in law from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and completed postgraduate studies in shipping law at University College London. During his university studies, he was a member of the Centre Coalition based in Athens formed by Georgios Papandreou.

Anastasiades was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1981 and was leader of his party from 1997 until 2013.

Nicos Anastasiades in Dublin in March 2014

In March 2012, Nicos Anastasiades was nominated as a candidate for the 2013 presidential election, against his rival MEP Eleni Theocharous in a vote among the 1,008 strong executive of the Democratic Rally. Nicos Anastasiades received 673 votes (86.73%) and Theocharous received 103 (13.27%). In the first round of the presidential election on 17 February 2013, Anastasiades won 45% of votes, while Stavros Malas and George Lillikas earned 26.9% and 24.9%, respectively. He won in the second round against Malas with 57.48% of the vote and was sworn in as President on 28 February 2013.

Bank Bail-out

Anastasiades broke campaign promises by agreeing to let the banks confiscate 47.5 percent of bank accounts over 100,000 euros in 2013, in order to acquire a 10-billion euro bailout from international lenders.

Military conscription

José Manuel Barroso (left) and Nicos Anastasiades (right) in January 2013 in Cyprus

Angela Merkel with Nicos Anastasiades in 2013 at the EPP summit in Limassol

During his electoral campaign for the post of Cyprus President in 2013, he announced his commitment to reduce military conscription in Cyprus to 14 months during the first hundred days of his term. During the early months of the Anastasiades administration there was important planning for the reduction of military conscription to 14 months in order to increase the incentive for 18 year olds to serve their conscription and to reduce the financial burden to the Cypriot state. Minister of Defence Fotis Fotiou announced that there would be a final decision on the reduction of military conscription towards late 2013. There was increasing pressure for ending military conscription due to the 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis.

In early August 2013, Minister of Defence Fotis Fotiou announced the reduction of military service, which was in the electoral manifesto of Anastasiades. He supported that national service will be reduced to 18 months in the first phase and decrease further to 14 months before the end of 2014. On 25 February 2016, it was decided by the cabinet to reduce the military service to 18 months for all conscripts who joined in the summer of 2015, and to reduce the service to 14 months for all those who joined thereafter.

Cyprus problem

Anastasiades supported the Annan Plan for Cyprus, even though a majority (61%) of his party voted it down. Some of his intra-party opposition even called for Anastasiades to step down. Many party cadres were up in arms over Anastasiades' letter to the European Parliament alleging that the government trampled on free speech and human rights during the referendum's "Yes" campaign. The government cited the National Television Council's data that showed that the six parties supporting the "No" vote got as much air time as the two that supported the UN plan. The start of peace negotiations between Nicos Anastasiades and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart began in October 2013, attracting the interest of international media and world leaders including Barack Obama.

He married Andri Moustakoudi in 1971 and they have two daughters. He has a twin brother and a sister.

Nicos Anastasiades speech in Bucharest in October 2012

• First Vice-president of the delegation of the House to the EU-Cyprus Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).
• Leader of the delegation of the House to the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace (Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) since 2008).
• Leader of the delegation of the House to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM).
• Leader of the delegation of the House to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) (Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean since 2010).
• Leader of the delegation of the House to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) (Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean since 2010).
• Vice-president of the Executive Committee of the Cyprus Group to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
• Member of the delegation of the House to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean and of the delegation of the House to the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA).

• ^ "Anastasiades Chr. Nicos". Parliament. Retrieved 25 February 2013.