The former Member of Parliament for Magnesia and Deputy Minister of Finance Katerina Papanatsiou announced her departure from SYRIZA. In fact, in the letter she sent to the party bodies, Mrs. Papanassiou leaves sharp edges to the party’s leadership, characterizing Stefanos Kasselakis as a magician in training, while adding that she is closing her circle in SYRIZA in the worst way, noting that “during the pre-election period for during the presidency of the party we were confronted with practices, which were and will be far from our understanding of dialogue, let alone comradely. Political discord gave way to lies, slandering comrades, character assassination.”

Mrs. Papanatsiou made her decision public by posting it on Facebook, where she also posted the letter she addressed to the party bodies. She states in her post:

“Today I sent the following letter of my resignation from SYRIZA PS to the relevant authorities. I remain firm in my views and active in political life and social movements. A big thank you to my fellow citizens, who have honored me with their votes for so many years.
We will meet again

The letter follows:

Some decisions are never easy, so this one didn’t come easily either. I organized myself in the field of the Left while still a student, and throughout my student years.
I joined the United Coalition, coming from the KKE, and I remained in this political space, all the years of my life. I participated in the Government of Alexis Tsipras from the position of Deputy Minister of Finance. Alexis Tsipras trusted me in this position and in a critical period we all fought together for the country. Some were won, some were lost. But this is also the definition of politics. I am proud of the party I served and it did me the honor to be a Member of Parliament for Magnesia three times giving me the opportunity to represent my fellow citizens.
Today, SYRIZA is closing its circle in the worst possible way. The space where we grew up politically and served selflessly is mutating into something that can no longer accommodate us. During the pre-election period for the presidency of the party, we were confronted with practices, which were and will be far from our understanding of dialogue, let alone comradeship. Political discord gave way to lies, slandering comrades, character assassination.
At the same time, the discussion about SYRIZA’s plan for the next day never took place. In SYRIZA we had learned to discuss disagreement and we knew that all different opinions fit. Mr. Kasselakis, as a “wizard in training” in the largest party of the Progressive arc, is constantly changing his views on key issues. In fact, it promotes ideas foreign to our area, such as Capital/Labour cooperation or the displacement for the Palestinian.
At the same time, he is constantly discovering “internal enemies”, adopting unacceptable phraseology, which we heard all the time from ND executives and trolls. The use of blunt methods to deal with every intra-party argument, adopted from day one by the new President, has unfortunately become a regime.
The new President, who insists on his unmediated relationship with the people, leaves the party’s organs and structure to weather, while he does not even inform the local Member Organizations about his tours and contacts. He shows no respect to the elected bodies of the party, as evidenced by his entire attitude since his election until today. These are not negligible, as the leadership group tries to present, they are issues of identity.
In an era of the omnipotence of the Mitsotakis government, which attempts to sweep everything public in the country, with its eyes fixed on the interests of the few and elite, at the expense of the citizens who live a suffocating everyday life. At a time when the far right is gaining ground and audiences, the solution cannot be to shift to the right.
For all these reasons, I made the decision to no longer participate in Mr. Kasselakis’ SYRIZA. With the hope that with many and many comrades who have not taken this step yet, we will meet again”.

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Realizing that the gradual transformation of SYRIZA will leave a huge kinetic and political vacuum in the space of the Radical and Renewal Left, I declare myself present for the next matches.
There are always some who think they can change the world. Sometimes it changes. Someday it will change. Sometimes it turns back. And everything that happened all these years, everything that we won and everything that we lost, happened either because we fought, or because we stopped fighting. The story doesn’t end.
I am absolutely proud of the Government of the Left, and of the struggles we inherited and continued, wherever each and every one of us came from. From our student years, the Forum, December, the squares, the governance 2015-2019.
Nothing is wasted. Our home is the social interests we serve and we will continue to do so.
Katerina Papanatsiou
Pr. Deputy Minister of Finance 2016-2019
Pr. Member of Parliament of Magnesia