“The discussion about the new leadership in SYRIZA-PS does not only concern persons but above all politics. We need to make a very big change, to become a new party, deeply reformist, which will present proposals to change our lives and will not only have an oppositional character, a party open to youth, to science, to Europe, to the world of production, where it was not so “welcoming”, said the president of the party’s KO, Sokratis Famellos.

He commented that “many times the party bureaucracy did not allow for such vitality and creativity” and that at the same time the party “did not demonstrate the required analysis of society, the economy and the administration and formation of policies that can respond to the changes that are occurring”. He noted that the radical left was the starting point of SYRIZA and that when the Progressive Alliance was added “our address expanded from the radical left to the progressive center”, to add that “SYRIZA-PS is a European, left and ecological party and it must also be essentially reformist”. The president of the KO of SYRIZA PS emphasized that he serves this position, “especially now that there is such a dense parliamentary work and I do not think of any personal involvement. Right now we have to serve the united party but also the processes for the election of a new political leadership”.

Regarding the bill regarding the vote of Greeks Abroad, Mr. Famellos reiterated that “SYRIZA-PS is the only party that follows the same line with absolute consistency” and that the party’s proposal that all Greeks abroad should be able to vote and elect their MPs in expatriate districts, so that there are expatriate MPs on single, but supra-party ballots, is also a proposal of the Council of Hellenism Abroad . He pointed out that the proposal of the ND does not allow the election and commented that “the government only sees expatriates as votes, it’s a shame, it insults them”. He called it hypocritical for the government not to vote for the SYRIZA amendment that allows Greeks in the country who are away for the season to vote and accused the ND of not seeking the composition.

According to him, the priority for SYRIZA PS at the time of the fire is to support extinguishing on the fronts, coordination, providing assistance to the people in the field and criticizing the operational matters will be done later. “We will criticize the state on whether they provided staffing and equipment,” he said, noting that there are 3,500 vacant positions in forest firefighters. As he said, “the SYRIZA PS, unlike the ND, wants a strong and powerful state, which will not leave anyone alone in the pandemic, the climate crisis, precision and war”.

The president of the KO of SYRIZA, in an interview with Open, criticized the words of the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, about “readiness”, while regarding the tactics of the evacuation, he noted that it must be a necessary supplement to prevention and firefighting.

Finally, Mr. Famellos asked the questions: Why was the forest protection program that provided for 5,000 staff positions stopped under ND and started under SYRIZA, why the Goldamer conclusion was not used, why the 550 hiring of foresters and the 400 hiring in the observatories for the arbitrariness planned by the SYRIZA government did not proceed.