It was very disappointing to see House president and Disy leader Annita Demetriou attend the memorial service for General Georgios Grivas in Limassol on Sunday and also take part in the march from the church to his hideout. This was the hideout from which he orchestrated his campaign of violence against the state in an effort to overthrow the government.

What business did the House president – number two in the state hierarchy – have honouring Grivas, who spent the last years of his life in hiding, as a wanted man, leading the terrorist Eoka B, the objective of which was the overthrow of the elected president? Was Demetriou pretending that this part of Grivas’ past did not exist and that she was paying tribute to his leading the struggle for Enosis?

Even worse is that Demetriou, a politician of the new generation, should be setting the good example of leaving behind the divisive figures of the past, who have no relevance today, and looking to the future. A young politician that promises to take the country forward by modernising society and her party is sending the wrong signals by trying to win brownie points from the church memorial service circuit.

This was the perfect opportunity for her to show everyone that she is a new breed of politician who does not trade in the past, as so many of the older generation still do, and that she does not espouse the politics of memorial services. Too many politicians still visit churches on Sundays and – they have the clout – invite television stations to cover this self-promoting gimmick.

Last year, Demetriou did not attend the Grivas memorial service, but last Sunday the Disy leadership was there. What has changed? Nobody criticised her last year for not attending, so why did she feel obliged to be present on Sunday, when it is obvious she does not feel any loyalty to Grivas? The answer, according to most commentators, is Elam. Disy is said to be afraid that the nationalists among its supporters were defecting to Elam and Demetriou attended the Grivas memorial service to reassure them that the party still embraced the values of the old nationalist right that still has Grivas as its symbol.

It is surreal that someone who died 51 years ago, and has had no impact on political life for 50 years – Enosis, which was what he stood for, has been off the political agenda for that amount of time – can still affect political decisions of big parties. This is not Grivas’ fault, but the fault of today’s politicians who refuse to break with the past. Demetriou should not be making a fool of herself going against everything she has been saying about modernisation to keep the right-wing nationalists of her party happy and prevent them from defecting to Elam.

This may affect the party’s share of the vote in the next parliamentary elections but it would allow the eventual rebranding of Disy as a modern European party that has moved on, as we all should do, from the days of Makarios and Grivas. In the end, Disy should be leading society far away from these historic figures not taking us back to them to keep some ageing nationalists happy.