By Antonis Anzoletou

The puzzle of the internal party elections is slowly forming in Koumoundourou. THE Efi Ahtsioglou announced her candidacywill follow today Euclid Tsakalotos and Nikos Pappas on Saturday.

Saturday’s Central Committee meeting is particularly crucial and everyone is expecting “white smoke” to come out and a message of party unity to be sent out. The changes should be made on the fly, as SYRIZA must simultaneously exercise its institutional role of official opposition.

Alexis Tsipras has chosen not to get involved in the proceedings and is expected to maintain this attitude until the end. What are they looking for in Koumoundourou? “The one who will be able to beat Kyriakos Mitsotakis”, as they say.

The former Minister of Labor wants her candidacy to be diverse, for this the information states that she is very close to officials such as Yannis Dragasakis, Yannis Ragousis, Marilisa Xenogiannakopoulou, Thanasis Theocharopoulos, Nikos Bistis, Kostas Zachariadis, Olga Gerovasili et al. It is said that he is already supported by several members of “Umbrella” (Nikos Voutsis, Nikos Filis, Dimitris Papadimoulis). Euclid Tsakalotos represents the Left wing of the party as the informal head of the “53+”.

It is considered certain, however, that he will be supported by people outside the specific bloc, as he is an executive with governmental experience and international prestige. Andreas Xanthos, George Stathakis, Irini Agathopoulou and Haris Mamoulakis are expected to be with him in Psirri today. Nikos Pappas expresses the split tendency of the “Members’ Movement” and according to many, entering the succession race was a one-way street.

The April 2022 Congress resulted in the expansion of SYRIZA towards the center and this must be expressed through a candidacy, support members of the majority.

The large majority in SYRIZA wants to have four or even five nominations, so that all tendencies in the party are recorded. This will mobilize the forces of the official opposition and bring more people to the polls. The restructuring of trends is a fact and according to many in Koumoundourou this may be a positive element from the prolonged period of unrest that has arisen.

A “thorn” for SYRIZA remains the timetable for the election of the new president. It will be one of the key issues that will concern the Central Committee that will begin its work on Saturday. The majority reportedly remains on the recommendation of the previous Political Secretariat to hold a permanent Congress at the end of August and elections on September 3 and 10.

A “wedge” in this proposal is expected to include a compromise solution to postpone the procedures by two to three weeks. This view is supported by Nikos Pappas and some of the presidential candidates. If this view is approved, the existing schedule will be changed and the polls will be set on September 24 and October 1, so that the party can catch up with the self-governing elections. Obviously, in this case, SYRIZA will be represented at the TIF by the interim president of the parliamentary group, Sokratis Fammelos.

On the table remains the proposal of Christos Spirtzis, supported by RENE and Dionysis Tebonera, that both the Congress and the elections for the new leadership take place after the self-governing elections. With the logic that individuals cannot define policies.

Municipal elections

Giorgos Ioakeimidis is reportedly “locked in” as the independent candidate that SYRIZA will support in the Attica Region. This was said at yesterday’s meeting of the Political Secretariat. There is still no “white smoke” in the municipality of Athens, with the name of the basketball player Nikos Pappas, as was said yesterday, remaining on the table.

For Thessaloniki, 3-4 names were heard among them and Spyros Pegas, who has served as deputy mayor in the combination of Yiannis Boutaris.

In the region of Epirus, the name of Yiannis Stefos, who came second in votes in Ioannina in the last elections, and for Central Macedonia, Angelos Tolkas and Yiannis Amanatidis are playing strongly.

Next week, possibly on Tuesday, it is expected to be submitted to the P.G. the final proposal of the competent Committee for self-governments.