By Antonis Anzoletou

This Christmas is very different for him SYRIZA. And for sure Koumoundourou was not visited by Santa Claus this year. The election result of the summer did not leave much room for optimism. The finances of the party are not flourishing and the coming years will be particularly difficult for the official opposition with the state funding reduced by approximately three million euros. This was stated before the holidays by the president of SYRIZA in an interview he gave to the Kontra television station. The obligations are many for a party that holds an institutional role and wishes, according to what Stefanos Kasselakis claims, to soon return to power. The salary of the staff, the professional executives, the tours that take place, the events – actions should be covered, the functioning of the structures throughout Greece should be maintained and of course the party means should continue to produce work.

According to the information that came to light yesterday, Stefanos Kasselakis he lent SYRIZA an amount of 250,000 from his personal account in order to cover immediate needs. The obligations, after all, were particularly increased from the summer onwards: the Permanent Congress held on September 2nd required a lot of travel that had to be covered and above all the two rounds of internal party elections left almost nothing in the coffers. The two euros that were paid as consideration by each voter were directed almost exclusively to the prefectural committees to cover their needs (rents, operating expenses, etc.). There was no other way to fill the gap, as according to Greek legislation, a donation to a party is not allowed over 20,000 euros. To all this it must be added that the tranche of state funding has not yet reached the coffers of Koumoundourou.

Will there be changes in party media? The president of SYRIZA does not intend to abolish any of them, but he is considering various ways of sanitizing them. In the minuses of Koumoundourou during this period, the fact that the number of deputies has decreased to a very large extent must be counted. From 145 when he was in power, to 86 four years ago and 36 today. It is reminded that the MPs of Koumoundourou are obliged to pay 20% to the party and another 20% for social actions. This means that the inflow of money has decreased to a very large extent.

The meager finances are expected to cause new intra-partnership conflicts. It is implied for former secretaries Panos Skourletis and Dimitris Tzanakopoulos that they did not make the required efforts to rationalize the finances or more simply that they did not “manage the situation” in SYRIZA. From his side Dimitris Tzanakopoulou, who was the party’s number two from 2020 to 2022, it is emphasized that the party did not owe even half a euro when he handed it over, adding that such reports are a direct shot at Alexis Tsipras, not at him. In the same line, Panos Skourletis clarifies that not only was there a rationalization in Koumoundourou, but during his days the debt of SYRIZA to the National Bank was also paid by paying part of the state funding. It is emphasized, in fact, that SYRIZA’s salary costs have also been reduced by 40%, with several persons now taking the position of MPs’ partners. Panos Skourletis was secretary of the Central Committee from 2018 to 2020.