Euclid Tsakalotos and the other members of “Umbrella” officially announced their departure from SYRIZA.

Read the text of “Umbrella” in detail

To

the Secretary of SY.RIZ.A P.S.,
the Deputy Secretary of SY.RIZ.A P.S.

Notification to the President of SY.RIZ.A P.S.

Dear partner, dear friend

This text was not easy to write. It did not arise without reflection, without deep thought, pain and anxiety for the present and the future of the Left. After all, most and most of us had taken an active part, along with many, many others, in the creation of SYRIZA. And all these years we fought passionately for the common cause. With moments that made us feel proud, such as the Prespa agreement, the ESY coverage of 2.5 million uninsured, the response to the humanitarian crisis, the restoration of collective agreements, the increase of the minimum wage and the abolition of the shameful sub-minimum for young people, the drastic reduction of unemployment, the rights of the LGBTI+ community, but also earlier with our participation in social movements, in the marches for Grigoropoulos, in the squares, in the Social Forum, in the labor and anti-racist movement, in the fight for the defense of Article 16, in so many others….

We don’t forget any of this. We keep them as a legacy for the future.

We don’t forget the difficult times either. The moments when we felt uncomfortable, difficult, minority, but we continued the journey. We do not forget our own responsibilities. The moments when we slowed down or when we failed to stop what we saw coming, mainly the violent mutation of our party, the leadership, its gradual departure from the principles and values ​​of the Left, its diffusion into a cloudy and neurotic pluralism.
But the moment has come to answer a crucial question, which has been raised.

Do the ideas of the renewing and radical Left fit into the current SYRIZA PS, even if they are not in the majority? Unfortunately, the answer is negative. And we are not the ones who gave the answer.

The new leadership – and we are not only referring to the new president – made sure to describe the new party against the “old” one. Just yesterday St. Kasselakis called SYRIZA a “sick party” and announced the unheard of, Bonapartist and certainly deeply undemocratic: the holding of a referendum on the “impeachment”, as he said, of the four party executives. We would say it was the last straw. The practice of Trumpism, practiced for the first time in history, especially in a party that has established pluralism, freedom of dissent, democracy itself. Such a practice of persecuting historical leaders of our area, in essence means persecuting and erasing the left itself by the new SYRIZA PS, which we fear has nothing to do with SYRIZA anymore, as we experienced it.

His speech at the KE was a monument to arrogance, authoritarian and anti-democratic behavior. As “unmediated”, he essentially abolished the institutions, even the Ethics Committee, while he stubbornly refused to vote on the issue, which he himself defiantly and vicariously raised.
As an absolute “ruler”, in a party that is discredited every day, he uttered accusations, the likes of which, perhaps, had never been formulated. It is, unfortunately, the new authoritarian “culture” that puts its stamp on a party, which with dizzying speed shifts from the Left, to the known, possibly unknown for the history of the country, area of ​​conservative metapolitics.

But there were many messages. It was the speech of St. Kasselakis in the BSE, which referred to the need for capital to cooperate with labor, a reference that in essence put the stamp of the violent turn to right and neoliberal paths and leads to a break with the world of work. It was the light that… overcame the darkness. The chillingly “neutral” announcement about Israel and Palestine. The complete absence of the leadership group from the mobilizations for Gaza. Theodora Tzakri’s “apology” for what the left did in 2011-2015. The replacement of the radical with the… patriotic Left. The authoritarian order from above to delete four historical executives, among them the two former secretaries of the party. The bossy and despotic decree “anyone who doesn’t agree with me will be off the ballot”. The toxic climate, neo-Aurianism and right-wing populism, shouting and bigotry, hatred of the 3% and the historical course of the Left, which put their stamp on the public debate. It was the unmediated relationship of the “leader” with the people and the essentially abolition of Member Organizations. The replacement of politics with communication and tactics. It was and is the constant deconstruction of the leftist, ecological and radical identity of the party in the name of the shift to the center.

The new leadership of the party promised in a primitive way to change everything. This promise was accompanied, however, with the old recipe for defeat. And while with authoritarianism he unprocesses faces, even those of enlargement, he keeps as the apple of his eye the permanent and violent mutation, the very one that led to permanent defeats and a loss of political and social influence. An example of this is the opinion polls, which bring PASOK-KINAL within breathing distance of SYRIZA PS, with constant leaks to other forces, mainly the left and abstention. The shift and crowding, ultimately, to the center and to populist conservatism, is spreading frustration in the world of the Left, which sees a historic project being undermined and torn apart from within. Somehow, New Democracy’s bet to “finish the Left” found fertile ground within the walls, from a group that daily divorces its principles and values ​​and is “inspired”, at best, by the model of the Democrat Party USA!

Because we feel the historical responsibility. Because we insist on the left and our vision is socialism with freedom and democracy, we can no longer legitimize with our presence the crime that has been committed against an ideological and political project that is unique in Europe.
We feel the need to protect the political space that we have served for so many years from further encroachment.

We, members of the Central Committee, declare that we are withdrawing from SYRIZA-PS. We remain on the ramparts and in the case of the renewalist-radical Left. We choose to serve the possibility of defending a new victorious perspective of the radical Left. It is a matter of conscience and responsibility. For a modern Left, part of the European and international left and in interaction with it. For a Left with critical thinking, deeply democratic, youthful, ecological, feminist, cinematic, anti-racist. For a Left firmly on the side of the working world and the poor.

PS: To all those who have been hoping and seeking for years the end of the Left: “You will not get rid of it so easily”
………………………………………… ……………..
MEMBERS OF KE WHO SIGN THE TEXT
1. Augustaki Eleni
2. Vaki Fotini
3. Vitsas Dimitris
4. Voutsis Nikos
5. Giannakaki Maria
6. Gogoglu Angelos
7. Gonidis Maria
8. Gouliaro Theodora
9. Dritsas Thodoris
10. Painter Vassilis
11. English Katerina
12. Kavadia Anneta
13. Kalamara Efi
14. Kostas Kaldaras
15. Kalkandis Petros
16. Kamtsidou Iphigenia
17. Kanellopoulou Maria
18. Karamesini Maria
19. Katrivanou Vasiliki
20. Claudianos Pavlos
21. Katerina Kniteou
22. Koutsis Nikos
23. Kyprianidou Ermina
24. Lamprou Panos
25. Magaliou Ermina
26. Mantas Christos
27. Matsuka Harris
28. Balaura Olga
29. Baskozos Yiannis
30. George Bougelekas
31. Nikolara Maria
32. Xanthos Andreas
33. Papadopoulos Christoforos
34. Papazevkou Ourania
35. Andreas Papandreou
36. Perka Peti
37. Anna Rogdaki
38. Skourletis Panos
39. Tsakalotos Euclid
40. Hydraios Michalis
41. Philis Nikos
42. Hatzisofia Anna
43. Christodoulopoulou Tasia
44. Christouli Elena
45. Psarra Stella

Meanwhile, with her statement, Efi Ahtsioglou categorically denied that Stefanos Kasselakis contacted her yesterday. Efi Ahtsioglou’s team, whose executives have not made their intentions clear, is preparing a position on what is going on in SYRIZA.

The members of the Political Secretariat Yannis Ragousis and Thanasis Theocharopoulos criticized the new president of SYRIZA earlier in the KE.