Incumbent President Tassos Papadopoulos got the boot in the first round of voting, indicating that Greek Cypriots may be ready to get back together with the Turkish Cypriots. (A lack of settlement of the Cyprus divide is currently one of the things blocking Turkey's desired membership to the EU.)
So who is Christofias? He went to college in Moscow on a Soviet scholarship, has a penchant for Che Guevara tees, and his party, AKEL, is faithful to the teachings of Marx, Engels, and Lenin. He claims he'll leave the free market alone. Before the election, AKEL's chief economist Stavros Evagorou said, “We have not abandoned Marxism-Leninism as a philosophy, but we’re not dogmatic. We’re selective about the elements that we put into practice.”
Before the election, those fearful of a communist president sent out text messages en masse, warning of an oppressive society to come. Christofias shot back: "What is this, that I'm a Mediterranean Fidel Castro? I'm not. I'm the leader of a party that is peculiar, that's what it is. It's a party that cares for social justice, and the people of Cyprus know that."
In a lesson for voters everywhere, turnout was a whopping 90.2 percent. Christofias beat conservative challenger, former foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides, by about 53 percent to 47 percent.
