The ad hoc committee on demographics, chaired by nationalist party Elam, will be restricted to discussing only the topic under its remit, House speaker Annita Demetriou said on Friday.

Speaking to state broadcaster CyBC Demetriou said, “The demographics committee will be curtailed to examining strictly its own portfolio.”

Pressed on the matter of admitting the far-right party into discussions at all, and on the fact that only coalition parties are constitutionally allowed to chair committees, Demetriou defended the legality of the act.

“There have been many [ad hoc] committees created on specialised topics,” Demetriou said, citing as an example the Green party’s chairmanship of the environmental committee.

“Political positions are one thing – and they raise concerns – but parliament is a body which operates within a legal framework and Elam is a fourth party in the state after coalition parties Disy, Akel and Diko,” she said.

At the same time the House speaker admitted that racist language in discussions on immigration had “confused people and filled people with phobias.”

The House speaker’s statements came after Thursday’s meeting of the interior affairs committee during which Akel MP and chair Aristos Damianou slammed previous and current administrations for the surge in migrants living on the island but also for the growth in racist sentiment.

Damianou referred to the dangers of instrumentalising the migration issue for political gain and as a result “fuelling fascism”. He went on to argue that the issue of migration should fall solely under the responsibility of the interior committee.

In a letter sent to the House speaker by Akel MP Giorgos Loukaides ahead of the meeting, the latter raised the fact that the demographics committee constantly concerned itself and inserted itself into discussions over immigration.

This opened a wider discussion among members on other parliamentary committees and their terms of reference, such as the human rights committee and the statutes committee.

In her statements to CyBC, Demetriou rubbished as baseless the idea that political machinations behind the scenes or informally agreed-upon ‘exchanges’ determined the composition of committees and her own nomination as House speaker.

“Such claims are an insult to the institution of the Parliament,” the House speaker retorted, adding that her party, Disy is a “party of principles” and that she was elected by the majority with no questions raised of entering into any negotiations.

“Both sides are trying to take advantage of the migration issue,” Demetriou said, stating when pressed that she was not referring to Akel but to the “well known far left.”

Akel for its part charged that the terms of reference of the Elam-directed demographics committee had never been demarcated and that the participation of that party in discussions outside of its scope is unacceptable and violates parliamentary regulations.

“I am not at all sure [that] as long as this committee remains as it is, chaired by the fascist-Nazi Elam, that it will not continue to violate [these] regulations,” Philenews quoted the Akel MP as stating.

The demographic committee’s scope should be limited to examining the demographic problem of declining births and social policy measures to increase births, according to the Akel MP.

President of socialist party Edek, Marinos Sizopoulos, who has at times been criticised for finding common ground with Elam over nationalist politics, was quoted as saying, “the selection committee of the Parliament [which] also determined the [committee] presidencies will provide a solution to the ad hoc committee issue.”