SYRIZA: The intra-party conflict continues shortly before the second session of the General Assembly

He is in a new twist SYRIZAwhere the intra-party confrontation escalates due to the surprise of the president Stefanos Kasselakis with the questionnaire to the members, about the name and identity of the party.

The reactions caused during the weekend led to the convening of the Political Secretariat which met for almost six hours yesterday Monday (19/02), in the absence of Stefanou Kasselakis, who was in London and did not participate online either. Instead, he chose to address them in a lengthy letter, calling on members of the Political Secretariat to stop “chasing chimeras”, making it clear that he will proceed as he sees fit.

The explosive meeting ended without a decision, and the appointment was renewed for this afternoon, at 18:00, in the presence of the party president.

Stefanos Kasselakis at the LONDON SCHOOLS OF ECONOMICS event

Anger

At today’s meeting, it is expected to be seen if the crisis that broke out will worsen or if there will be a truce, even if temporary, referring the issue to the Congress of the party, which is scheduled to start on Thursday. Based on the statements of the members, however, it does not appear that the members of the body will come with a common position. After all, one of the issues raised at yesterday’s meeting was the possibility of a motion of censure against Stefanos Kasselakis by the members of the Political Secretariat.

Moreover, a series of executives, with their interventions in the media, left clear points against Stefanos Kasselakis even today.

Indicatively o Thanassis Theocharopoulosa member of the SYRIZA PG, expressed his disagreement with the submission of the questionnaire shortly before the conference and admitted that the situation in SYRIZA is not pleasant.

“There was a surprise action with a questionnaire and an agenda was changed, instead of the conference being about agriculture, the members will come and instead of political issues, they will discuss about his brand,” he said, adding that “the president has been elected by the basis, because we were saying to give the floor to the members. I absolutely support and respect the result of the base that elected the president.” At the same time, he characterized the way this discussion was opened as a “mistake” and what was a second mistake was the letter to all members of the PG, which goes in a direction of “power attack”.

His distaste for Mr. Kasselakis was characteristic, saying that “he was elected president of SYRIZA, he did not found a new party.” However, he noted that “divorce does not always provide the solution”.

Ragousis: Kasselakis’ letter is baseless

There was also a reaction from Yiannis Ragousis, who disagreed with the letter of Stefanos Kasselakis to the members of the PG.

“It is not correct, the content of the Kasselakis letter is unfair. If the initiative for the questionnaire had not been taken and if we had not received such a letter yesterday without Mr. Kasselakis knowing why the Political Secretariat was convened, we would not have been on the front page of 6-7 newspapers” he said speaking to Sky and added: “the president chose not to respond to Mrs. Gerovasili but to the members of the PG as a whole. The 17 of us who requested the meeting of the body did not have a specific agenda.”

“Mr. Kasselakis’ letter was completely wrong and unfounded. What we have to do, with Mr. Kasselakis first, is that everything goes well and that no excuses are given,” he said, noting that the president of SYRIZA is accusing them of something that does not exist. “If we look at whose initiatives the negative publicity came from, none started from us but from the president and his team. We did not leave SYRIZA, we want to help, there should already be an instrument in the logic of the morning coffee”, he said.

Nikos Pappas: The basis is not for sampling – The questionnaire should be binding

The need to take many more steps in order for SYRIZA to have an adequate collective function, Nikos Pappas underlined, speaking on the morning show of Open, expressing his opposition to the way in which the questionnaire was put to the base of the party.

According to Stefanos Kasselakis’ questionnaire itself, “it should be enriched and go to the grassroots with the binding character of grassroots decisions. The base is not for sampling,” he noted.

The transformation and the steps we took meant that the leadership must be bound by the opinion of the grassroots and when you appeal to the grassroots you don’t appeal to get a feeling. You address yourself with very specific questions and the answers of the grassroots bind you as a leader”, explained Mr. Pappas.

The SYRIZA MP noted that several changes were made in the party over the past period and that this did not happen easily. “Some even couldn’t stand it and left the party”, he said and estimated that there will be healing.

To a question about whether, after five months, he has regretted supporting Stefanos Kasselakis, he answered in the negative. “The developments proved that any other option would be disastrous for our party,” he stressed.

Nikos Pappas

Zachariadis: We did not elect a monarch, but a president

Speaking to ANT1, Kostas Zachariadis raised the issue of political course, orientation and coordinated recovery, with an end to introversion. Commenting on the criticisms of SYRIZA officials against Stefanos Kasselakis, that he runs the party like a business, Kostas Zachariadis said that we elected a president, we did not elect a monarch. “It is not Kasselakis’ SYRIZA. We elected a president and no one denies that, we did not elect a monarch,” said the SYRIZA official, adding that Stefanos Kasselakis does not ignore party institutions.

Asked to comment on the criticisms of SYRIZA executives against Stefanos Kasselakis, that he runs the party like a business, Mr. Zachariadis said that we elected a president, we did not elect a monarch.

Petros Pappas: A motion of censure against Stefanos Kasselakis is suicidal

At the same time, Petros Pappas called on all sides to take a step back and defuse, while he described a motion of censure against the president as suicidal.

According to what Mr. Pappas told ERT, the questionnaire concerns issues that have been raised in the internal party debate for years and the answers will serve as an advisory.

“It is true that SYRIZA has gone through a very big adventure with all that happened with the departure of Alexis Tsipras and the election of the new leadership. We are all trying, including me personally, to contribute to a good effort for the next period”, said Panos Rigas, a member of P.G., also speaking to ERT. of SYRIZA.

“We don’t dismantle structures, we improve them”

“The time has come to uproot the weed of discord,” said SYRIZA MP Giorgos Karameros speaking to MEGA, stressing that the party should be serious, reliable and stop introversion.

Referring to the statements of Stefanos Kasselakis about the party’s structures, he said that “when a party goes through a crisis and comes from an electoral defeat, it has a process that results in a new president. For example, Kyriakos Mitsotakis would not have emerged in 2016 in the leadership of the ND if the structures were working correctly.”

“We are not dismantling the structures of the party, we are improving them”, concluded Mr. Karameros.

Kouloglou: The end of SYRIZA is inevitable

At the same time, Stelios Kouloglou, the now independent MEP (coming from SYRIZA) said that “The end of SYRIZA is inevitable, it has already been done with the election of Mr. Kasselakis.”

Speaking to the First Program he said that “his election was actually a group suicide. You know, this happens in organizations or closed systems, generally in religious groups that wait for something to happen, an event that will take them to heaven, and when it doesn’t come, they kill themselves en masse.”

He estimated, “that there will be some kind of compromise in order to hold the conference. Because then, in essence, it will be an admission that we are closing the shop if the conference does not take place. So there will be a genre I think, but you never know with this situation where it’s going to end up.”