By Antonis Anzoletou

Stefanos Kasselakis completes four months in the leadership of SYRIZA and things have not gone as he expected.

Introversion has not left the party and especially lately the climate is particularly heavy. Contrary to what is said and written, it is not the loan to the party media that caused the problem.

A series of decisions that were not discussed sufficiently, such as the ones regarding his ministerial appointment in 2019 by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the convening of the parliamentary group in Spetses, the multi-day absence in the USA at Christmas, but also the party discipline for the same-sex couple bill caused discontent even in his own block.

Perhaps it is to blame for the fact that a close party staff has not yet been appointed, which will meet every morning in order to draw a specific line.

This is the well-known morning cafe that during the days of Alexis Tsipras was slowly renamed Political Center. Even his report to the Central Committee that he will request the resubmission of the SYRIZA law proposal on the separation of state and church caused surprise.

THE Nina Kasimati she reacted and asked before any party regulation is submitted to the Parliament to be informed, otherwise she will not accept her signature. Beyond the procedural aspect, there were many who noted that with this move, possibly at the most inopportune moment, another front could be opened with the church.

The progressive sign that Stefanos Kasselakis wants to give to the party is clear. And it is possible that this will be the “weapon” he will use in order to draw a red line from PASOK.

Especially if in February the information is confirmed and more than 10 MPs differ with the line given by Nikos Androulakis in support of the bill for same-sex couples.

The leading group of the official opposition wants to achieve 36/36 on this issue. And many believe that it is possible, given that Pavlos Polakis has never spoken about voting against, beyond the disagreement he expressed at the Political Secretariat last Friday.

So will this specific bill be a “crash test” between SYRIZA and PASOK that will have to do with the progressive sign of the two parties, but also with the cohesion of the two parliamentary groups? It is very possible.

In the official opposition, they are preparing to identify PASOK with the ND if it turns out that approximately 1/3 of its MPs do not go along with the party line. From Harilaou Trikoupi they remind that they voted for the cohabitation agreement in 2015 and unlike SYRIZA they do not impose party discipline on a matter of conscience. They estimate that the losses they will have will be much less, as many are still waiting.

The truth is that at the moment Nikos Androulakis has the upper hand due to SYRIZA’s disaffiliation and taking second place in the polls. He is more interested in the space of the center and not the left of the political map. In this field, it seems that SYRIZA wants to move recently in order to take back forces from the KKE, the Freedom Movement and the New Left. This would in the first instance bring him back under New Democracy, which despite Stefanos Kasselakis’ reports of victory in the European elections, seems to be the only realistic goal at the moment.