No one wishes to resign from the SYRIZA parliamentarians, which could pave the way for him to the parliament, the party’s candidate for president, Stefanos Kasselakis, declares through his circles.

“Stefanos stated that he does not want either Elena (Akrita), the Admiral (Vangelis Apostolakis), nor Othon (Iliopoulos) to resign. What he will ask if he is elected, from the entire Parliamentary Group, is that they all go to society together with him”, Mr. Kasselakis’ circles note, after the noise caused by the public statements of Mrs. Akrita and Mr. Iliopoulos, that the resignation is not in their intentions.

Earlier, “clearly and no” was the answer given on Thursday morning by the SYRIZA Member of State, Elena Akrita, to the question she was asked if she would submit her resignation in order for Stefanos Kasselakis to be in the Parliament if he is the new president of the party (a total of six resignations are needed for Mr. Kasselakis, who was ninth on the SYRIZA State ballot, to find himself in the seats of the parliament).

As she revealed speaking to Action 24, the reason she will not submit her resignation was because when she had agreed with Alexis Tsipras to be on the SYRIZA State ballot, this was done because the intention of the then president of SYRIZA was for Ms. Akrita to take over the Human Rights sector which would be upgraded to a ministry if the party won the elections.

“Like Othonas Iliopoulos, I too are personal choices of Tsipras. When the proposal was made to me in May 2022, the agreement was very specific. For me, the area that interests me is human rights – women, the disabled, LGBTQI, etc. The intention was that this area would be upgraded to a ministry that I would take over. That’s why I joined and I completely understand Othona and his attitude,” said Elena Akrita.

“I will finish my term not because I care about the salary. I want to work where things are cannibalistic” added the SYRIZA state deputy.

“No” and from Othona Iliopoulos

For his part, Othon Iliopoulos, the member of parliament and head of the SYRIZA State ballot, said:

“On the occasion of various comments, statements and public interventions that have come to light in recent days, I feel the need to state the following:
I intend to honor the trust of Alexis Tsipras and the mandate of the hundreds of thousands of SYRIZA-PS voters to represent them in the Greek Parliament from the position of head of the State ballot until the next national elections as stipulated by the country’s Constitution. I see my placement as head of the State ballot as symbolic of Alexis’ vision for a Radical, Scientific, Left-wing political approach to the country’s problems. It is for me a supreme responsibility that I consciously undertook and which I consider that I have no right to assign ignoring the will of the citizens and the democratic principles of the country’s polity.

This position of mine, under no circumstances, should be considered as an intention to support one of the two candidates for the presidency of the party. Obviously maintaining the right of choice, I consistently maintain an attitude of neutrality in my public interventions, a unifying and companionable attitude that, in my opinion, requires me to be the head of the SYRIZA-PS State Ballot”.