Filenews 21 November 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
Five years after the most important moments of its modern history, its function as the European Capital of Culture, and while in the meantime nothing reminds of those days of cultural uplift, the city of Pafos seems unable today to attempt the next step to recapture the thread of culture from where "Paphos 2017" left it.
After a long delay, at the plenary session of the Pafos Municipal Council on 24 June 2021, everyone believed that the first Board of Directors of the Pafos Cultural Foundation to be established would be appointed, which in essence would be the continuation of the European Capital of Culture body. The Pafos Municipal Council, however, failed to complete the examination of the issue and take decisions, since some of it, citing the special conditions of the pandemic or the upcoming summer season, succeeded in postponing the discussion and decision-making on the appointment of the members of the new body.
Now, although we are on the eve of 2023, things remain as they were in June 2021. No development has occurred in the intervening period, the issue is not part of any meeting agenda, and the members of the City Council themselves express ignorance about what is to come with the issue, as well as the reasons for the delay. Recently, on the contrary, there have been increasing assessments and whispers within the Municipal Palace that the issue has been informally abandoned and that during the (long) pre-election period the chances of universal agreement on the practical issues of the operation of the institution are negligible.
And all this, while the rapid deterioration of cultural affairs in Paphos, with the end of Pafos 2017, is universally acknowledged. The pressure from all sides to finally take practical measures to restore cultur to a flourishing situation in the city through the Pafos Cultural Foundation is currently proving to be a non-starter.
