Akel reacted with fury on Tuesday after a group of Famagusta schoolchildren were photographed performing Nazi salutes after the taking of their official class photograph.

The incident occurred at the Peace and Freedom combined gymnasium and lyceum near Dherynia, with the party alleging that the children’s teacher had “encouraged” the children to perform the salute.

“It is extremely problematic that a teacher at the school encouraged students to continue taking photographs while performing Nazi salutes, despite the reaction of her colleague to the incident,” the party said, though it did not elaborate on who the colleague was or how they reacted.

“The reproduction of Nazi symbols, even ‘for fun’, constitutes a dangerous deviation which offends the collective memory and undermines the democratic values of education. Nazism has no place in our schools, nor does it have any place in our society,” it added.

As such, it called on Education Minister Athena Michaelidou to take “all the necessary measures, both to investigate the incident and to effectively shield public schools from extreme fascist ideas”.

“Democracy cannot allow for tolerance towards Nazism,” it added.