President Nikos Christodoulides criticised the House on Wednesday for trying to pass dozens of bills – including some that are unconstitutional – before it dissolved later this month ahead of the May 24 parliamentary elections.

He also expressed concern over the composition of the new House, pointing out however that it was everyone’s responsibility to change the foreseen outcome.

“I am worried about the next House, but the next House is everyone’s responsibility. It is one thing to say we are worried and another what we do to avoid finding ourselves in a sticky situation,” he told a round table debate with business leaders at the 16th Nicosia Economic Congress.

He also said it was not acceptable for “a hundred of bills to be passed at the last plenum” because elections are coming.

“I have unbelievable laws at my office that passed, which I must check to see if they are unconstitutional or not, which I will sign and which I will send back,” he said.

The president pointed out that it was “not an indication – I am sorry to say – of seriousness to pass a hundred laws at the last minute”.

“What message are we sending as a country? I don’t know how many proposals came for the issue of foreclosures,” he added.

“Sometimes I feel they are passing proposals they know are unconstitutional just so that they come to me and I refer them to the court so that I bear the responsibility. I don’t have a problem, I will do so if it is unconstitutional, but they can’t pass proposals they know are unconstitutional just to tell the people that they tried to protect them … but the government won’t sign them,” he said.

Christodoulides stressed that the new parliament was up to the people. “We have a responsibility – you, I, every one of us voting in the elections. That is why we must vote in the elections, because it concerns the future of our country,” he said.