Michalis Paraskevas

On January 14, 2019, he announced that he would be running for office as an independent candidate. In justifying his decision to run for office, he stated that society wants others to decide. He also stated that his personal long-term goal is to partake in decisions.

In 2014, he refused to pay social insurance contributions as an act of civil disobedience in response to the government's decision of writing-off a 7.2 billion euro debt to the Social Insurance Fund, as suggested by the Troika in 2012. A possible refusal to comply with the court order to pay the fine could result in a jail sentence and probably disbarment. Michalis Paraskevas' civil disobedience was also connected to the refusal of the Minister of Finance to comply with the Social Insurance Fund 2010 Law, which obliged the Minister to repay some of the debt back to the Social Insurance account so as to create real assets, and to appoint an independent committee for auditing purposes. The initiative concerning the Social Insurance Fund resulted in the creation of a small team of activists. Called ‘Initiative for Social Control of Social Insurance Fund’, which demanded the return of money from the state to the Social Insurance Fund, and reformation of the way the Fund is controlled so as to allow for some direct control by the citizens. As he explained in interviews, following the 2018 Presidential Election, when the same persons were candidates, as if nothing happened, he realized that the impact of this endearing effort simply had no practical effect on society and that the civil disobience as way of social struggle or awaking in Cyprus society was at least insufficient https://www.facebook.com/voulitv/videos/996265724097595/?t=1 https://www.facebook.com/activeradiocy/videos/870226710002285/?t=0