The meeting of the Central Council of the SYRIZA Youth ended a while ago, during which 37 members out of a total of 51 members submitted their resignations from the body.

With the following announcement, the secretary and 31 other members of the Central Council declare their departure from SYRIZA Youth and by extension from SYRIZA-PS.

A CIRCLE CLOSES. THE FIGHT CONTINUES…

The result of the national elections has shaped a dystopian landscape in our country. The new political map includes a strengthened New Democracy Government and a strengthened far-right within the parliament. With this condition, the future is ominous, with even harsher anti-social government policies, dead ends for the social majority and the strengthening of reactionary perceptions. On the contrary, the left and progressive forces seem weakened, unable to exercise programmatic opposition to the dominance of the right, and unable to reconstruct the opposing pole within society.

In this context, unfortunately, SYRIZA-PS seems to be facing a decisive political and ideological crisis. The great defeat of the national elections and the resignation of Al. Tsipras created unprecedented conditions for our area and highlighted a series of problems that existed in our party. The necessary period of reconstruction began with the election of the new President. A process that we collectively decided, despite individual disagreements, and the result of which is obviously acceptable. The change of leadership and the election of Stefanos Kasselakis does not, however, seem to be able to reverse the course of dissolution of SYRIZA-PS. On the contrary, the strategy and a series of actions of the new president and the leadership team seem to accelerate this condition. The new page for our site seems to shape a new landscape, in a foreign direction for us.

In the first months, we saw the dominance of a blurred and unclear stigma in the public sphere, the deployment of an intense slogan, many times, with empty content, which is unable to go deeper into the critical political issues. We witnessed contradictory statements, positions even contrary to the fixed positions and values ​​of our space. A typical example is the speech on BSE and the slipping into ideological and political frameworks foreign to the left. Communication prevailed over reliable strategy formulation and expression of clear political positions.

We have watched the deconstruction, in some cases, of the efforts and government work of the SYRIZA government, in the form of building an internal enemy. But mostly, there is a reluctance to try to understand the reasons for our defeat, because the popular layers and the youth have turned their backs on us, which is very troubling to us, and instead the same narrative is repeated, namely the recruitment of the “enemy within ” and the subversives, which is deliberately used to cover deeper impasses.

The president of SYRIZA-PS has the main responsibility to be the first to guarantee the unity of the party in this difficult period and he should have behaved with respect for the collective procedures and the observance of the statute, with respect for the different opinion and criticism, away from a climate of toxicity. Unfortunately, neither he nor the leadership team around him seemed to understand this. The fresh election does not mean a blank check. Anti-institutional actions of the president, logic of intense leadership in the name of unmediated contact with the base by making the organs inactive when they disagree, and above all his introductory speech at the last meeting of the KE constituted a cut for the operation of our space. This speech in particular was deeply divisive, authoritarian and disparaging of all members and executives, far from the ethos of our own left, and gave the impetus for the development of even more toxic climate in the base of the party. “Anyone who doesn’t agree can leave” is the familiar phrase. The delay of the conference proceedings, the discussion procedures for the necessary assessment and the construction of a new strategy do not leave much room for the recovery of SYRIZA-PS.

The only thing that is certain is that our party seems to be constantly shifting, but above all to be trapped more and more in discredit and disrepute.

All of us who sign this text are members with a longer or shorter career in this area, who have given soul and body to our joint effort all these years. We managed to build SYRIZA Youth from scratch in difficult times. We are proud and proud of our choice. For what the first government of the Left achieved, the exit from the memorandums with society standing, the restoration of labor rights, the reduction of unemployment, the strengthening of public care, the cuts in higher education, the Prespa agreement and much more. We are proud of the struggles we fought in previous years, present and present with all our strength in every small or large social space and movement. SYRIZA was a hopeful left-wing and victorious venture for all of Europe. We know that we made mistakes along the way. We make our own self-criticism and take stock, knowing that as in victories, so in defeats, the responsibility is always collective. Despite the obvious weaknesses and inadequacies, however, we never gave up the fight for a single moment.

After all this, it is indeed difficult to announce today our departure from SYRIZA Youth and by extension from SYRIZA-PS. A great circle closes. We cannot defend a plan that leads SYRIZA-PS to a violent mutation, we cannot remain silent in a situation that leaves no room for real politics. We cannot consent to the alienating strategy of the new leadership group, which in one month managed to shrink SYRIZA even more. The imperatives of the times demand decisive steps in another direction, and we are today taking the first.

We remain active in the cause of the Left, in the effort to shape a left-wing space that will try to express broad social layers again. Active in trying to listen and respond to contemporary disputes, accuracy and the financial crisis, the housing crisis and inequalities, the climate crisis, the new digital age, the protection of public goods, the assurance of peace and justice. Fighting so that our own generation can live better in the present and not in some distant future. In interaction with the social strata we want to represent and especially the young men and women. Present and present in the social movements of our time, contributing to the building of social resistance. Trust in collective action and the strengthening of social utility is a necessary condition. Having as a legacy our common struggles, the faith in the ruling left which, however, cannot exist without living social processes, without at the same time inheriting the pathologies and mistakes of the past, we remain faithful to our strategic goal, the transformation of society in a socialist direction with democracy and freedom.
Nothing is wasted. The fight continues.

Signatories

Albahei Angelos
Vlahakis Konstantinos
Gerolimatos Alexandros
Maria Georgakopoulou
Glezos Vassilis
Grigoriou Stergios
Zaharis Loukas
Kavadias Telemachos
Bad-headed Calliope
Karagounis Excellent
Cold Cheerfulness
Lampadas Efthymi
Lucas Dimitris
Lygerou Vivis
George Lykopantis
Lytrivi Angeliki
Manziaris Stergios
Musoulides Aspasia
Pantios Thanasis
Christos Papadopoulos
Dimitris Papadopoulos
Pavlis Andreas
Riga Agis
Salagiannis Demosthenes
Sarri Katerina
Skourletis – Twenty-seventh Nikiforos
Topalidis Yiannis
Toppos George
Heads up Vicki
Chondrorizos Stamatis
Khohoras Konstantinos
Chrysafis Apostolis