“The congress will decide whether I am the president of SYRIZA or not,” said the former party president Stefanos Kasselakis in an interview with ANT1 and Nikos Hatzinikolaou.

Regarding the questioning of his candidacy, he said: “Candidates are those approved by the Congress. We will go to a presidential election no matter what. The statute is clear. The Congress is the highest body, it can and should express itself, in my opinion, for what has been done. Let’s say it’s true that I’m a former president. Who is president today? I remain both de facto and de jure president. The base of SYRIZA chose me to change everything and Alexis Tsipras kept a neutral stance. We are now in a difficult political leadership vacuum for the party. The statutes are clear that when there is a vote of no confidence, we go to an extraordinary conference. Of course, I remain president, because it is not understood that a party does not have managerial and administrative leadership”.

Regarding Alexis Tsipras, he said: “From now on, let me tell you that if Alexis Tsipras wishes to return to the front line of politics, the most honest thing would be for him to run against me as a candidate for president of SYRIZA.” He noted that it was a “tactical mistake not to go to the polls last February.”

On the situation that has arisen, he said: “These powers that are exercised at the moment are substitutes. I saw on my phone that they had locked the e-mail. So, I realized that there was another ownership concept in the party.”

Regarding internal party developments, he said: “There is a plan to exclude me from the election of the leader and a scenario of postponement and liquidation of the party, these are not democratic perceptions.”

He even said that he will not go to Saturday’s Central Committee.

Regarding his controversial phrase about “hooded men”, he replied: “I didn’t talk about hooded men, I said that among the honorable members of the Central Committee, some wore hoods. The Central Committee has the right to hold a secret ballot, but this particular one was semi-secret, since some voted by phone.”

He appeared confident that “we will go to a Congress and a presidential election because at the end of the day the base will speak. There is a plan that wants to exclude me and there will be a postponement of the proceedings and a rescue committee. I will not allow this scenario, I will not allow the scenario of postponement and liquidation of the party”.

He acknowledged that the Central Committee can disqualify his candidacy and added that “the Congress can annul the decision of the Central Committee.”

On the occasion of the procedural problems and his referral to the Ethics Committee, he said that in the future “the solution will be provided by the base of the party with a new statute” and added “I have submitted my proposal, which is participative direct democracy. We must build our party to build the country, deep cuts must be made. I made my suggestions, but unfortunately they have been blocked. Anyone who thinks I will leave the country is seriously mistaken.”

Of the out-of-court hearing, he said: “The leak of personal data today can happen to me, tomorrow it can happen to anyone. An out of court is a formal protest. One must take a clear stand. There are constitutional rights of equality. I am not going to trouble the party legally. I turn against the natural person.”

Of his opponents, he said: “They do not disagree with me ideologically and there is no counter-proposal from their side. It is done because of an obsession with my face, the new against the old party mechanisms. No one has the right to prevent the base from voting. End the debate about the Kasselakis party. The base will provide the solutions. I am not going to leave SYRIZA and I will not form a new party.”

Regarding whether his opponents, such as Olga Gerovasili and Christos Spirtzis, will have a place in the party, he said: “Whoever the base decides will participate in SYRIZA. I will stay with SYRIZA no matter who is elected.”

About his pothen esches, he said: “The pothen esches was for the day of the inauguration of the presidency before the wedding. Tyler’s pothen esches will have no shadows.”

On airing his personal life and marriage, he said, “It’s our right to spend some nice moments with our friends. No, I’m not apologizing.”

On the unified Centre-Left scenario, he said such pressures come from business and media agendas and added that each party’s base must legitimize its leader and steer the party to cooperate or not.