This afternoon, Tuesday morning at the latest, SYRIZA-PS MP Peta Perka is going to send the Speaker of the House her letter of independence, being in a “funeral state of mind” as she said in an interview on the First Program.

“It is too difficult. It is with a lot of pain, with a lot of thought. While I knew I had to leave, I was driven by this whole political situation, all of it. Do you know what the expression is? Heteroshaming. Nevertheless I think I’m on the right side of historythat I did the right thing, I am calm about this part and of course I declare first of all, Member of Parliament for Florina, so not only will I not leave my county, I had also done serious parliamentary work in the previous term, now even more so, with respect the people and I will really work hard, because it is a difficult county, but also in general, a person who has lived his whole life on the Left does not retire from the Leftadded Mrs. Perka.

Regarding her decision not to hand over her seat, Ms. Perka explained it as follows. “If I had disagreed with the line I’ve been elected or I couldn’t stand it or anything else I’d properly hand over the seat. But here is what happens, I have been elected with a certain political line of the radical Left and another president of course, so the people chose me with this program and the one who is moving today is the new president and the new SYRIZA. This is so clean, that’s why we’re leaving anyway. I had never imagined that I would leave this party that we really built, we pained it with joys, bitterness, disappointments, we read, we documented. This is a long story. But unfortunately I am saddened and I really say it, I don’t want any harm to come to this partybut it is not possible, it has already started mutation from day one,” he said.

Mrs. Perka repeated what she had said in the recent past, thatIt would help if Alexis Tsipras spoke. “I say it another way. It would relieve me. I also referred to a sentence by Proust that says that when something you love is in danger, you either defend it or abandon it. And I even said then that I still defend it” he pointed out. “I don’t know, let’s let him talk when the time comes. Because with all that Mr. Kasselakis says, whether they escape or on purpose, he also attacks the previous president when he says Koumoundourou’s leave, when he says that the party is sick. Very heavy expression, reminiscent of other times,” he added.”

Referring to parts of the speech of St. Kasselakis in the KE, which provoked the strong disapproval of party officials, such as “5th phalanx of the SW” for which the president of the party spoke, Ms. Perka emphasized “5th phalanx? A man new from America who has nothing to do with the party, with the Left, he has only been a member of the party for 2 months and he has against him people who are fighters of the Left who have gone to EAT-ESA, he has other people who have given their lives them and calls them 5th phalanx. At that time I stood up. I expected the whole room to react. No one can tolerate this. Nor Pummaro the theories, this great chapter of the Left.”

Responding to the fact that in the previous period there had been harsh words from historical officials of SYRIZA about the new president, Mrs. Perka countered that “they had said things with a political connotation”.

“I mean, even Pepe Grillo is a political designation. What does Trump mean, it is an entire American political system with this entire course that had, like Grillo, another phenomenon, these are political phenomena, with specific characteristics that I would call above all populism, authoritarianism, etc., the which have nothing to do with a party of the Left and even a pluralist party like SYRIZA, which managed to unite parts of the Left to become a single party, therefore with enormous respect for the different point of view. And a man comes and says I will abolish the trends, I will abolish the instruments, he has abolished all of them essentially and today he is invoking the statute, which is also a shame for a man who came to a Central Committee that did not even do it, to makes us a proposal for a referendum” he added.

In addition, he noted that going to the Central Committee he had not pre-decided to leave.

“When I went to the Central Committee I went with a speech, quite harsh I would say, that I was now forced to publish because I was not given the opportunity, since the instruments are not working, but I was not ready to leave today, yesterday. However, after this statement by Mr. Kasselakis, it was impossible for me to stay. We also have a dignity and we have a course and we also have a people who are watching us on the left, at the base of the party that has lost them,” he said.

Asked if she is preparing a new party, Ms. Perka initially clarified that she is not retiring from the Left. “As a Member of Parliament for Florina I will insist on this part at least as an independent Member of Parliament. But the future is open. This part of the Radical Renewal Left and with elements, I will put this in the conversation, because this hurts me very much that the ecological element, the green transition, the feminist, the rights are missing. This is something missing in Greece. I wish and hope that the forces will be found and that it can be formed at some point, but I cannot say that it is something that will be done and is planned” said Ms. Perka.

In the same context, he also stated that “this whole move will in no way favor the Mitsotakis regime”. “This is our goal. That’s why we’re leaving because we see that this SYRIZA, the way it’s mutating and probably going, what Kasselakis is saying is probably leaning towards the center-right. This is what really hurts me. I hope what seems to be happening doesn’t happen. Let the voice of the Left, of reason, prevail. I don’t have high hopes for it. That is why we have left. But it’s moving fast. Already from the beginning Mr. Kasselakis changed the symbols of the party, in SYRIZA the alpha instead of Left says Reconstruction. Then his speech at SEV was a center-right speech, meaning he agreed with Mr. Mitsotakis. This process also, the unmediated contact with the people and we abolish the party in fact the intermediate bodies, Ethics Committee, Central Committee, organizations. These are not typical of a Left party,” said Ms. Perka.

As for whether Mr. Kasselakis is influenced by the people who support him, according to what Ms. Perka mentioned, they play a decisive role in his choices. “There is also a revanchism that I think comes from there. I mean, we’ve seen prosecutions of journalists. I personally have a technocratic path, with expertise in production and energy, infrastructure, Greek. I have such a story. Suffice it to say that of all the committees I’ve been on, I’ve been on an Educational Affairs subcommittee. This is not a choice that shows that I am not in a revanchist mood. I believe that he is surrounded by people who could advise him to remain on the Left, with conditions, the ones we know and adhere to for so many years” he pointed out in conclusion.