First lady is ‘attempting to silence and intimidate’ online activist, lawyer says

First lady Philippa Karsera Christodoulides’ demands that online activist Nicoletta Tsikkinis take down social media posts about her is “an attempt to silence and intimidate a critical voice”, Tsikkinis’ lawyer Pambos Ioannides said on Monday.

He told the Cyprus News Agency that he will respond to the first lady’s letter and “provide a detailed explanation”, before going on to call the first lady’s position “incomprehensible”.

“She only sent a letter to Tsikkinis about her old posts and not about what happened and led to her resignation [of the social support body] and the president’s statement that he intends to dissolve the body,” he said.

As such, he added, “we will say in our letter that this is an attempt to silence and intimidate a critical voice towards [the first lady] and the president, which is unacceptable”.

“From all over Cyprus, [the first lady] chooses Tsikkinis and sends her a letter which had nothing to do with the posts of the period, but with posts which were published earlier, with the most recent in June 2025,” he said.

He then added that if the first lady decides to file a lawsuit against Tsikkinis, “we will certainly deal with it”.

The social support body had first been established in 2014 and was placed under the wing of then first lady Andri Anastasiades, before being passed on to First Lady Philippa Karsera Christodoulides when her husband became president in 2023.

It had initially been set up to offer financial assistance to disadvantaged students, but a video which was published on January 8 alleged, among other things, that cash donations to the body were used to circumvent campaign finance laws and curry favour with the government.

In light of the publication of the video, the incumbent first lady resigned from her role, with her husband saying on Monday that he was minded to completely abolish the body after the video came to light.

“I want to share with you that my first thought is to completely abolish the body. I hear some ideas to transfer it to the state scholarships foundation,” he told reporters.

The following day, the body’s management committee implored her to reconsider, arguing that her resignation “will negatively affect the continuation of the body’s work”.

However, she remained resolute in her decision, thanking the committee but telling it that her decision was “irrevocable”.

At the same time, a firm acting on her behalf sent a cease and desist letter to Tsikkinis regarding social media posts she had published, citing the posts as damaging, defamatory, and exceeding acceptable limits of public expression.