A message of “resolute support for the KKE” was sent today from a large, as expected, gathering in Sapphos Square in Mytilini, “from the island of heroic fighting traditions and unbreakable ties with the KKE”, the Secretary of the K.E. Dimitris Koutsoubas.

In his speech, at the first meeting of the KKE after the official announcement of the elections, Mr. Koutsoumbas attacked New Democracy, SYRIZA and PASOK who “have co-governed with everyone in previous years, when this was required in order to continue killing the many, for the profits of the few”.

As he said, “Didn’t they vote on the memoranda together? His first PASOK, the second of ND and PASOK, the third of SYRIZA that all three voted for it together? Didn’t ND and PASOK vote for half the bills of the SYRIZA-ANEL government and SYRIZA and PASOK more than half of the bills of the ND government?”

Responding to issues of post-election collaborations, Mr. Koutsoubas clarified that “we know very well what will come out, whatever form of government they end up with: Another anti-popular government, worse than the previous one, which will launch a new, more severe attack on human rights of our people.”

He noted that “the government SYRIZA-ANEL it was the worst so far, the current Mitsotakis government is the worst so far and the government that will come after the elections will be even worse. That is why, he stressed, a much stronger KKE is needed.”

In his individual criticism of the other parties, Mr. Koutsoubas argued that “ND calls on the people to vote for it in order to continue its anti-popular work for another four years. He deserves it, he says, “to have a calmer four years”, without multiple crises! As if this will overcome their arrogance. We don’t need, we think, a long analysis of why the people should blacken a government during whose term we had 35,000 deaths from the pandemic, the country’s dangerous involvement in the imperialist war in Ukraine, the burned forests and the people’s properties. The government telling the people who are tested by accuracy that wanting to buy good quality food to eat with their family on Easter is like wanting to buy a Porsche…”

Regarding SYRIZA, he said that he “says that he too has the right to govern for the first time with his program”, without troika and memoranda! It’s as if the people owe him because he didn’t abolish the memorandums and expel the troika, as he promised, but brought in a third, even worse one. Not to mention so many others: Mandra, Mati, so many dead during his tenure.

But who are they kidding? Their commitments to the system, to big capital, to the various imperialist centers, are today even greater than ever. To see the symbolism: Mr. Tsipras used to come here to Lesvos before the elections and say “go back” to the German chancellor, praising the struggles that the people of Lesvos have fought together with the communists. Now, in the pre-election period, what is he doing? He goes to Germany and meets the German chancellor to “expose” his program and “get his wish”! How times change…

He did not, of course, go to meet the thousands of workers who were on the streets that same day against the social democratic government of Germany which is exterminating them. This, you see, would spoil his narrative that all we need is to supposedly become like the other European states, where the people there live just fine.

As for what Mr. Tsipras says about the 5-10 MPs he may be missing and the rest is the most marketable expression of politics, it is political trade and if progressive people had a thousand reasons to turn their backs on him today, the way in which SYRIZA politicizes is an additional reason.

We remind Mr. Tsipras that when in the past he lacked MPs to pass the third memorandum, he found them in the ND and PASOK MPs. He can still look for them there today. And if he wants to see who is paving the way for the Mitsotakis government, let him look at himself in the mirror, since his party, SYRIZA, supported the central choices of the Mitsotakis government and his own forces are compromising with the ND forces, and of PASOK in municipalities, unions, but also in GSEE.».

Regarding PASOK, he said that “however, we also have others who want to market themselves as “first-timers” and are asking for an opportunity from the people. Like the PASOK of Mr. Androulakis, who says that he has never governed himself, unlike Mitsotakis and Tsipras. The fact that he was Secretary of PASOK and right-hand man of Venizelos, when he co-ruled with ND and Samaras, is probably a detail he has forgotten. In fact, as we hear, PASOK has also set its sights on the KKE headquarters in Lesvos.

A cradle that rocked them… What should the people of Lesvos do with another member of parliament who will run to give a vote of confidence to any anti-popular government that emerges, to sit on our necks to continue making our lives unlivable?”.

Finally, Mr. Koutsoubas also referred to MERA 25. “The dance of the so-called first-timers, he said, is closed by Mr. Varoufakis together with other former ministers of SYRIZA, who go to the elections with the slogan “first time rupture”… As if they didn’t we know the good and the bad… They present themselves in front of us and tell us that last time they were fooled by Tsipras and they didn’t make it… Together in 2015 they were sitting in the government seats fooling the people by implementing an adventurous policy.

And what do they call the people to do? To believe that “everything can be different” within this barbaric system and within the EU, which is run by a handful of parasites, because they have, they say, ready-made technocratic solutions. But within this system the poverty of the people grows. And poverty remains, whether you measure it with euros, or you measure it with “DIMITRA” or “ANDREA” whatever name the currency has…”.

Mr. Koutsoubas in his speech and defending the need to maintain his party’s parliamentary headquarters in Lesvos noted that “however, it is not only the KKE headquarters in Lesvos that they have set their eyes on.” As he said, “A few days ago the leaders of ND, SYRIZA and PASOK met in Patras, in the only municipality in the country that has a militant, communist mayor, who is an example and is recognized by the working, progressive people throughout the country. So, they all gathered, drank their wines, called the local media to capture the moment, and what did they discuss among other things? How will they all together support whoever passes the second round of the municipal elections to get rid of Peletidis, who has obviously spoiled the square, in many kinds of big interests.

Honestly, we did not expect that they would so quickly live up to our slogan that says: “Alone and all of us”…

Mr. Koutsoubas made a special reference referring to the mobilizations in Karava “to the uprising of the Lesbian people in February 2020, which sent the suppression forces and the MAT, back from where they came, crushing the authoritarianism of the government” but also to the effects of the refugee – immigrant in the local community. “We are proud, he said, of the attitude of our comrades and other fighters, who isolated the racism and the cries of hatred, when the boats of the uprooted came to the shores. Their attitude was decisive, towards those who went to direct the justified anger of the islanders, towards the uprooted, and not towards the politics of war, uprooting, exploitation and refugees”.

As he said, “we don’t forget the mobilizations in this square so that our islands don’t become EU refugee prisons. We don’t forget the mobilizations after the shipwrecks that killed many people, so that we don’t get used to death. We cannot forget the emotional mobilization in the cold, mud and rain at Vastria, which canceled the bans with the mass of city workers, youth and farmers from Kalloni, Mandamado, Mistegna, Thermi and other villages. Nor will we forget the attempt to persecute elected officials and other activists, among them the executives of the KKE, the president of the labor center who is also our candidate, and also the secretary of the Federation of Agricultural Associations, because he says they ‘incited the people to stand'”.

Referring to the refugee and immigration issue, Mr. Koutsoubas also spoke about “the stance taken by the other parties on the refugee issue until today. Who among ND, SYRIZA and PASOK did not swallow the Dublin treaty, the EU’s directives, whose own direction is the creation of structures – prisons on the islands? “After all, the unacceptable EU-Turkey joint statement, which bears the seal of SYRIZA as it took place during his days, is kept in force by the current ND government, while PASOK does not give a damn”.

Regarding the national issues and especially the Greek-Turkish relations, Mr. Koutsoumbas said that “the “gray zones” have grown into a “Blue homeland”. We have not only violations, but also overflights over Greek islands, which have resumed after the earthquakes. Conditions defining borders are disputed. We want, he said, from here, from the island of Lesvos, from the north-eastern Aegean, to denounce, once again, that this unacceptable claim is being made on the backs of NATO, which does not recognize borders in the Aegean. It has support from the USA, the EU, which “weigh” their economic and political interests in Turkey. All those, that is, that ND, SYRIZA and PASOK, drink water in their name and have the audacity to present them as guarantors of sovereign rights.”

Connecting Greek-Turkish relations with the refugee and immigration issue, Mr. Koutsoumbas argued that “if they really wanted to solve the refugee issue, they would implement the KKE’s proposals for asylum review committees in Turkey, under the responsibility of the EU and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. They would take measures to release refugees and migrants, with papers for their countries of destination and transfer them to the mainland immediately, instead of building structures – prisons. They would hire the refugee workers in government structures, as these are people who are at the mercy of dismissal, while their considerable experience in a sensitive area, could be an element of exploitation, when there are such great shortages both on the islands and on the mainland ».