By Antonis Anzoletou

If the former comrades of SYRIZA indulge in a parallel “debate”, like last night, what happened in the Central Committee of the party on November 11-12 may be repeated and indeed very soon. The Plenary Session of the Parliament, as well as the media, will be the field in which they will argue about the type of opposition they will exercise against the government.

The first parliamentary differentiation between him SYRIZA and her New Left was recorded during the roll-call vote of the bill for the new operating framework of servicers and the protection mechanism for vulnerable borrowers. The “11”, although they initially voted against the bill expressing their opposition, declared themselves “present” (except for F. Ozgiur who voted “no”) in three of the six articles for which the officer had requested a roll call vote opposition.

This is article 7 which incorporates a provision of a European directive and concerns the possibility of holding sums of money. Article 38 amending the 2018 law on the operation of servicers and Article 40 on extensions of operating licenses. This different position was enough to provoke Dora Avgeri’s comment on social media and start the fight between the two parliamentary groups: “it is questionable”.

Otherwise, the “birthdays” for the “New Left” yesterday in Serafio were accompanied by many smiles, photos, teasing, discussions and promises for a good course. Alexis Haritsis stated that “we want a left in the government. We are not a protest force. We are a force of social assertion. But we are also a force for political change.” Addressing the toxic climate of the previous days, he pointed out that they wish to build a left “that does not engage in toxic fights on the internet, but fights the essential battle of ideological confrontation within society… away from leadership, hegemony, absolute and unique truths”. as he characteristically pointed out.

He would not leave unanswered the first official of the “11” o Stefanos Kasselakis who chose ALPHA to give her his first interview on the evening news. Just at the same time as the outgoing MPs were announcing their new venture. “The issue is who wants to contribute to their country. The country needs a big progressive party. The only party that can fulfill this expectation of the people is SYRIZA. As I said, we are committed to the future, you will see it in practice”, was the response of the official opposition leader. “My conscience is clear,” he noted, referring to the departure of the “11” from SYRIZA.

And since everyone is now working with the European elections in mind and for both parliamentary groups they are of an existential nature, the answer of Stefanos Kasselakis about how the persons who will be included in the party’s list will be chosen was of interest. “Elena Kountoura and Kostas Arvanitis will obviously be on our ballot. They are very experienced executives, they will help the rest to become a team. The rest will be selected by preliminary ballots. They will be able to apply to the party and then go through society and show interaction with society. Party members will choose who will run. This is the basis of our statute,” he said.

In the Parliament, Stefanos Kasselakis was responding to those who left Koumoundourou and a little further down Piraeus Street, a new parliamentary group was making its mark. The “Umbrella” team was present at the presentation including Nikos Voutsis, Panos Skourletis, Nikos Filis, Dimitris Vitsas, Anneta Kavvadia, Michalis Hydraios, Panos Lambrou and others. Aristidis Baltas and Giorgos Stathakis were at the event from early on, as were Nikos Bistis, Makis Balaouras, Kostas Poulakis, Giorgos Varemenos, Dora Giannakakis, Vasiliki Katrivanou, Themis Kotsifakis, Andreas Nefeloudis and Nikos Chrysogelos. The group of “11” seems to want to raise the stakes with the “New Left”, as after the end of the event they distributed a special form to those present in order to register for the new venture.
Intervention by Tsipras

From Rome, Alexis Tsipras showed once again that what is happening in SYRIZA concerns and displeases him, showing that the battle for the Left must be focused on the New Democracy side. “The multi-splitting and multi-sectarianism of progressive forces paves the way for the consolidation of conservative forces in governance, but also for the consolidation of the hegemony of Far-Right ideas in European societies,” emphasized the former president of SYRIZA, to add meaningfully: ” The battles before us are not only electoral, but political and ideological. And they will be increasingly difficult as long as we do not understand that the enemy is not within the walls.”