Abstract

The 50th anniversary of the Coup and the Turkish Invasion coincides with the electoral rise of the far right in Cyprus. Utilizing analytical tools offered by the voluminous literature on the far right in Europe, this presentation attempts to highlight the reasons for the rise of ELAM in Cyprus. Although much of the literature focuses on the “political demand” of voters for the positions of such parties, the intervention focuses mainly on the role of “political supply”, i.e. the positions and tactics of the other actors in the system. It argues that the ambivalence of key actors on the Cyprus problem and, in particular, the interconnection of the issue with the migration issue, has contributed in legitimizing and normalizing ELAM and in partially disassosiating it from the Greek Golden Dawn. The presentation concludes with an exploration of the impact of the normalization of ELAM on efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem.