The Democratic Party (, ''Dimokratikó Kómma'' (DIKO)) is a Greek-Cypriot nationalist,

centrist Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

political party in Cyprus founded in 1976 by

Spyros Kyprianou Spyros Achilleos Kyprianou (; 28 October 1932 – 12 March 2002) was a Cypriot barrister and politician, who served as President of Cyprus from 1977 to 1988. He also served as President of the Cypriot House of Representatives from 1976 to 19 ...

. DIKO is variously described as

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

; internationally, it is a member of the

Progressive Alliance The Progressive Alliance (PA) is a political international of progressive and social democratic political parties and organisations founded on 22 May 2013 in Leipzig, Germany. The alliance was formed as an alternative to the existing Socia ...

, which groups together mainly centre-left parties. Among all Cypriot political parties, DIKO claims to be the most loyal follower of the policies of Archbishop

Makarios Macarius is a Latinized form of the old Greek given name Makários (Μακάριος), meaning "happy, fortunate, blessed"; compare the Latin ''beatus'' and ''felix''. Ancient Greeks applied the epithet ''Makarios'' to the gods. In other la ...

, the founding father of the Republic of Cyprus. Its electoral stronghold is the

Paphos District The Paphos District, or simply Paphos (also Pafos), is one of the six districts of Cyprus and it is situated in the western part of Cyprus. Its main town and capital is Paphos. The entire district is controlled by the internationally recognis ...

Overview

As stated in its founding declaration, the Democratic Party proposes the political philosophy of "social centrism", which constitutes "a total of attributes and values that offer in the state social cohesion, political prospect, improvement of terms of life and development of human culture, that should be shared between the entire population and not only between the privileged teams of the population". In June 2003, under the leadership of

Tassos Papadopoulos Efstathios "Tassos" Nikolaou Papadopoulos (; 7 January 1934 – 12 December 2008) was a Cypriot politician and barrister, who served as President of Cyprus from 2003 to 2008. An experienced member of the Makarios III’s cabinet, Papadopo ...

, DIKO announced it was moving away from its traditional

political positioning, and declared its intention of moving towards

social democracy Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

. The party has developed a strict and hardline stance on the

Cyprus problem The Cyprus problem, also known as the Cyprus conflict, Cyprus issue, Cyprus dispute, or Cyprus question, is an ongoing dispute between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot community in the north of the island of Cyprus, where troops of th ...

and strongly opposed the Annan plan in 2004. DIKO also supports

European integration European integration is the process of political, legal, social, regional and economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union ...

and a non-aligned foreign policy, even though it showed support for Cyprus joining NATO's

Partnership for Peace The Partnership for Peace (PfP; ) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) program aimed at creating trust and cooperation between the member states of NATO and other states mostly in Europe, including post-Soviet states; 18 states are ...

. The

Movement for Social Democracy The EDEK Socialist Party (, EDEK) is a Greek Cypriot nationalist, social-democratic political party in Cyprus. Overview The party was founded by Vassos Lyssarides in 1969 as the United Democratic Centre Union, EDEK (, ΕΔΕΚ). It was origin ...

(EDEK), together with DIKO, constitute the so-called "space in-between" (ενδιάμεσος χώρος) in Cypriot politics, in that they strongly differentiate themselves from both the right-wing

Democratic Rally The Democratic Rally (, ΔΗΣΥ, DISY) is a Christian democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Cyprus led by Annita Demetriou. The party was founded on 4 July 1976 by veteran politician Glafcos Clerides. Two leaders of the par ...

and the left-wing AKEL.Christophoros Christophorou (2009). The Evolution of Greek Cypriot Party Politics. The Government and Politics of Cyprus. Peter Lang. p. 90. From 2000 to 2006, the party was led by

, who was

President of Cyprus The president of Cyprus, officially the president of the Republic of Cyprus, is the head of state and the head of government of Cyprus, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Cypriot National Guard. The office was established by the Constitu ...

from 2003 to 2008. Papadopoulos was succeeded as DIKO leader by Marios Garoyian, who was President of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

from 2008 to 2011. The party leadership was taken over by Nicolas Papadopoulos, son of Tassos, following an internal ballot in December 2013. The Democratic Party's traditional third place in legislative elections has allowed to it to assume the balance of power in parliament, where it has alternated between support for the communist

Progressive Party of Working People The Progressive Party of Working People (, , ΑΚΕΛ or AKEL; ) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–LeninistHelena Smith, Cyprus gets ready for a communist 'takeover''The Guardian 2008 communist party in Cyprus. AKEL is one of the two major part ...

(AKEL) and the conservative

(DISY). In the 2011 legislative election, the party won 15.8 percent of the vote and 9 out of 56 seats. The party's decision not to field a candidate in the 2013 presidential election and to back conservative leader

Nicos Anastasiades Nicos Anastasiades ( ; born 27 September 1946) is a Cypriot politician and businessperson, who served as the seventh president of Cyprus from 2013 to 2023. Previously, he was the leader of Democratic Rally between 1997 and 2013 and served as Me ...

instead was controversial amongst members, and contributed to Marios Garoyian's loss of the leadership to Nicolas Papadopoulos later in the year. During the Seventh European Parliament, the sole DIKO MEP was attached to the

Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) is the Political groups of the European Parliament, political group in the European Parliament of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and ...

group.

Party leaders

Election results

Parliament

European Parliament

References

External links

Official website
{{Political parties in Cyprus 1976 establishments in Cyprus Political parties established in 1976 Political parties in Cyprus Social democratic parties in Europe Progressive Alliance Pro-European political parties in Cyprus