Animal Party plans Wednesday protest as ALMA reveals earlier bid to target activists

Animal Party Cyprus has called on citizens, organisations and activists to join a peaceful protest outside the House of Representatives on Wednesday, September 16, at 10 a.m., during a session of the parliamentary Environment Committee examining the conduct of environmental activist groups.

In a statement issued Monday, the party said it strongly opposed the item, which it said had been registered vaguely, without naming any organisation, specifying any alleged illegality, or presenting evidence to justify parliamentary scrutiny of this kind.

Separately, the ALMA Movement said in its own statement that the same item had first been proposed last July, in wording that directly targeted environmental organisations and activists, and was withdrawn after ALMA objected. ALMA did not call for a protest, focusing instead on the item’s wording and the parliamentary process. When the item returned last Wednesday, ALMA said the position put to the Committee was that all involved parties would be called to give their views so the issue could be examined comprehensively, and that on that basis it saw no reason to block the discussion, saying there are no taboo subjects in parliament and that discussing an issue neither adopts the view of whoever raised it nor prejudges the outcome.

The Animal Party said environmental and animal protection groups, and ordinary active citizens, are not a problem for society but part of civil society, arguing that volunteers and organisations often cover gaps the state itself fails or chooses not to address. It said any citizen reporting poaching, animal abuse or environmental destruction should be heard rather than treated as a nuisance, and that existing laws and authorities, not blanket scrutiny of civil society, are the proper way to deal with any wrongdoing, whether by an activist, an organisation, a hunter, a citizen or a state official. The party said it does not defend any illegal conduct, but that it consistently defends citizens' right to speak, protest, report wrongdoing and campaign peacefully for animal and environmental protection. It said the real phenomenon that should concern parliament is poaching, environmental destruction, animal abuse and weak enforcement of existing law, not the people who report them. Describing itself as a party run by volunteers with no state funding or mechanism, the Animal Party said it would attend Wednesday's protest peacefully, democratically, decisively.

ALMA said it supports environmental activism and active citizen participation in protecting the environment, describing activism as legitimately able to be interventionist and uncomfortable and to challenge established practices as part of its role in a democratic society, while saying it does not justify illegal action by anyone. It said it would not accept blanket incrimination or targeting of environmental organisations and activists. ALMA added that it would not accept a reversal of reality that turns those who report the illegal killing of protected birds into the accused. It said the people who break the law should be the ones facing scrutiny, not those who expose it.

ALMA said the specific wording of the item on the agenda does create a serious problem, since it appears to prejudge the direction of the debate, and said it does not adopt that wording itself. ALMA closed its statement by arguing that those now concerned about the Environment Committee's direction should recall that the make‑up and chairmanships of parliamentary committees were political decisions, and said the larger parties that excluded ALMA from any committee chairmanship, while accepting ELAM as chair of the Environment Committee despite its publicly stated positions, owe an explanation for that choice.

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