Stefanos Kasselakis is invited to… put himself outside SYRIZA and form his own party Theodoros Dritsa. The member of the Central Committee of SYRIZA he speaks of “misleading” and “deception” and states “that with each passing day, Stefanos Kasselakis emerges as a factor in the further destabilization and dissolution of SYRIZA”.

In more detail, Mr. Dritsa’s lengthy post on Facebook:

This morning, I heard on SKAI TV Mr. George Tsipras, with whom I have worked closely in the Defense Sector in recent years, answering a journalist’s question about whether he agrees with the deletions and saying: look, it is clear that some through SYRIZA who want to establish a new party, they now aim at its dissolution.
I was troubled and had some thoughts and the desire to make them public.
In Piraeus, 76 years ago, I also know… the stones. On the two Sundays when the process of electing a new President was organized, I saw people I don’t remember ever seeing before in my life. This one could say, good. However, I heard from the mouths of some of them, repeated in different ways and in different intensity, it is true, the conversation: “we came to vote so that the old ones can leave”.
I heard it, I recorded it, I was troubled, I wondered, I was bitter, I was worried. Okay, let the “oldies” go. To come what? I know that in life and art and work and politics, the old and the new go together. Conflicting many times, but together. For there to be a grandson, it is assumed that there is a grandfather. For there to be a granddaughter, it is assumed that there is a grandmother. And of course, mothers and fathers mediate. Just as the craftsman transfers the secrets of his mastery to the apprentice and he then puts his own stamp on the new creations, which may be different from the “master”. But they start from him.
From this process of internal party elections, Stefanos Kasselakis was elected as President. That same night, celebrating, he told us that he would change everything, he told us that the “light” had come, he told us – and in fact with repeated emphasis three times – that, “I will never betray you”.
However, in his campaign, which was remarkably expensive for the morals and customs of our political space, he had not cared at all to present his political thoughts and opinions on any of the critical issues plaguing Greek society. No programmatic reason, in complete contrast to the campaign of Efi Ahtsioglou, Euclid Tsakalotos, Nikos Pappas, Stefanos Tzoumakas. Therefore, I, at least, did not understand what all this will change, what is the light and what non-existent commitments of his will not betray the new President.
The truth is, there was only one exception. Individual rights. It is a quirk of life and history that, as many of us today as we oppose Stefanos Kasselakis, the defense of these rights has been at the forefront for years now and they mockingly called us “rightists” because we fear the centrists and thus we will lose the elections.
Who called us that? The vast majority of executives who today support and side with Stefanos Kasselakis, excluding those who identify themselves as LGBTI. Isn’t that awesome? The rest (separation of Church-State, professional army, etc.), after first being uttered, magically disappeared from the campaign or were artificially varied.
The continuation, however, after his election, was completely different. Stefanos Kasselakis has views on the economy, labor and capital (see his speech at the BSE Assembly), on the “patriotic Left” (a clear bow to nationalism), as if in Greece the Left was not always patriotic precisely because with this accusation, thousands of activists were executed, tortured and imprisoned under Law 509, for the attitude of the Greek Left towards the Palestinian and for many other reasons. At the same time, arbitrarily and irregularly, the new President proceeded to depose and replace the press representative and the director of the Parliamentary Group and refused, while he was obliged, to implement the decision by a large majority of the Central Committee for the immediate convening of the Extraordinary Congress, as single and indivisible process, that is, together Election of President-Extraordinary Congress.
Subsequently, when justified protests and denunciations of executives began on all sides, he responded with deletions. Stefanos Tzoumakas at the beginning, last night with a tweet by Dimitris Vitsas, Panos Skourletis, Nikos Filis and it probably continues.
Because what exactly would the new President want and demand? Should this anti-democratic and misleading attitude of his be accepted, which brutally hurts the consciences of all of us? Shouldn’t there be protests, and in fact, in a harsh tone? This is not an undermining of the party or anyone. It is due to our history, defense of principles and values.
Of course, because his colleagues informed him that as President he does not have the right to write-offs and at least in this he is not “unmediated” and that neither in the Ethics Committee nor in the Central Committee can he gather a 2/3 majority as required by the Statute, then they told us that it is not a decision of deletions, but of… “verifying acts”, although he himself had made sure to tell us… “whoever likes it”! Is there also inappropriateness on top of everything else?
Stefanos Kasselakis should have said all this in his election campaign and informed us honestly about his plans. He did not say them, because he chose to hide and silence them. And all of these, or most of them, do not only concern intra-party procedures that are supposedly indifferent to society, they mainly concern critical issues that affect and even define the lives of Greek women and Greek workers.
I do not find more suitable words in the Greek language than the words, deception and deception. I’m even learning, indicatively of course (I haven’t done a poll), that this sense of deception and misrepresentation is already registered in a significant number of people who voted for him as President, based on what they knew and by their own criteria.
It is therefore easy to conclude that the victory of Stefanos Kasselakis was basically based on an instinctive desire of some people, out of the despair of the painful defeat, to find the “machine god” and bring “Cleansing” to Drama. People, citizens, party members, have every right to subjective judgement. The people also have the right in difficult times, to… take hold of their hair and have done so many times. However, Stefanos Kasselakis is involved, because he does not have these rights and no candidate for President has the right to hide his real plans, his views and his program and to replace this very serious omission with the particularly costly and his personal campaign.
Therefore, we can now say with certainty that “let the old people go” he himself designed it, he himself cultivated it, he himself indulged it in cunning and deceitful ways before he was elected, even tolerating and not reacting to the wretchedness of his supporters in Internet. Is it possible to accuse comrades and comrades with a huge history and selfless contribution, that they have a proprietary perception of the party and that they are not interested in the real problems of the country and Greek society?
I think that Sr. Aristides Baltas, with his extremely accurate and detailed text, has already recorded and highlighted all of this, better than anyone else. The same with the SYRIZA Youth with its announcement. Shall we delete them too? Old and young?
It is unfortunately becoming more and more apparent with each passing day that Stefanos Kasselakis is emerging as a factor in further destabilizing and breaking up SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance.
I do not believe that there are members of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance including even Stefanos Kasselakis who consciously wish and even aim to harm our party. In the Left we learned (especially the old ones), to defend – many times with fanaticism, sharpness and exaggerations – values ​​and principles. Especially in times of crisis, like the ones we are going through. This is exactly where we are. And we have a duty, whether we voted for Kasselakis or not, not to discredit the Left and its future even more in the eyes and feelings of Greek society, always taking into account that here we can only talk about the unity of the Left and not about the unity in general.
We often say that Democracy has no dead ends. I can think of no other democratic way out of the deadlock being deleted, than for Stefanos Kasselakis himself to realize the harm he has already done with his choices and his personal plans and take the brave decision to put himself out of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance and to found a new party as he wants. In other words, to leave our party’s precious human resources free to seek unifying solutions through disagreements, as it has been very well known to do for decades now. CLEAN STUFF!…
THE THREAT OF WAR AND THE HUGE NEEDS OF GREEK SOCIETY CANNOT WAIT.
Thodoris Dritsas
Member of the Central Committee*
of the RADICAL LEFT COALITION-PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE
(*which, as you know, has also been elected by all the members, i.e. by the “base” of the party and in fact, with regional representation)