“It is not an oxymoron at all to request that the KKE be represented in the European Parliament,” says the general secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE. Dimitris Koutsoubasin an interview with the newspaper “Sunday Daily”.

As he explains, “it is our long-standing attitude towards the EU and in favor of a real union of the people’s Europe that makes us the only reliable choice for anyone who wants to send a message of disapproval, opposition to the EU and its politics, even and if it does not agree with the whole of our position for breaking away from this capitalist union and creating a new Europe of Socialism. We are the only ones who do not have commitments in the EU of lobbies, multinationals, wars and we do not feel any need to embellish or “hood” anything that is discussed and decided in the European Parliament, as all other parties do.

Mr. Koutsoubas notes that the aim is “to further strengthen the current of questioning of the dominant policy implemented by all governments based on EU guidelines”.

“The stronger the KKE comes out of this battle, the stronger the people will be in the face of the difficulties they have to face and what will come from June 10”, he emphasizes and adds: “The ND government must “cut back”, that the efforts of the sinful Social Democracy fail, that the vote not be scattered to forces that exhaust their intervention in populist shows in the Parliament, while, of course, no political message can be sent by abstention”.

He points out that all the KKE’s reasons for disagreeing with the postal vote “are valid in their entirety and have been confirmed”, arguing that since the government left only the option of the postal vote “it is obvious that we will call on the people to make use of it and vote en masse KKE”.

When asked “why do you rule out finding common ground with the other parties”, he answered: “Initially, we never ruled out that we might agree with another party on some individual positions. You have to ask the other opposition parties, however, why they have not supported any amendment, any proposal of the KKE law all these years”.

“The reason is that, ultimately, we have a different understanding of who should pay for all of this, what commitments should be met. Or more simply, we are consistent with what we support, while others only vote pre-election,” he adds.

Regarding whether “there is concern that the exclusion of any post-election cooperation with the other forces of the Center-Left makes it easier for the ND to stay in power”, the head of the KE of the KKE underlines: “We are talking about forces that have co-governed with the ND, have voted together on memorandums and hundreds of unpopular laws, they vote almost everything together in the European Parliament. It is precisely this collusion that consolidated the opinion that “there is no alternative” and gave “air to the sails” of ND and Mr. Mitsotakis.

In question if “Tik Tok suits KKE“, he answers that “these means can also be used by a political party to communicate with the world, especially with the youth, next to, of course, the live contact and ties that we primarily seek. The issue is not to abuse it and above all what is the content, the message that everyone is sending.”

Regarding the presence of the president of SYRIZA-PS, Stefanou Kasselakis, in the Palestinian Territories, states: “I understand that Mr. Kasselakis has learned to treat everything, even the children of the West Bank, as decor for his pre-election self-promotion, but in this genocide he has already been irrevocably recorded among the supporters of the perpetrator” .

“As for his statement that “it is finally time for Greece to recognize the state of Palestine”, we completely agree and have been saying this non-stop since 2015, when the relevant resolution was unanimously approved by the Parliament, which the governments first of SYRIZA and after ND they have kept in their drawers for nine consecutive years”, he adds.

Regarding Greece-Israel relations, Mr. Koutsoumbas notes: “The order is to stop any cooperation with a state that illegally owns the lands of another people, makes illegal settlements, blatantly violates all UN resolutions and international law for decades and is now committing a genocide with over 35,000 dead, among them civilians, women, children, the elderly. No so-called “interest” is allowed to come above all this. Our people do not gain anything from this particular cooperation, which only serves to give an alibi to other occupying states, for example to Erdogan and Turkey, which owns the northern part of Cyprus and part of Iraq, Syria” .

“The state of Palestine must be recognized here and now on the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, as Spain, Ireland and Norway have done and as 145 of the 193 UN member states have done,” he emphasizes.

As for Greek-Turkish, he points out that “the main thing that worries us is the subject and the motivations of the dialogue that is being conducted. These are, on the one hand, the containment of Turkey in the NATO “embrace” and away from Russia, and on the other, the businesses between large Greek and Turkish business groups”.

“On the table of this dialogue, which is not being held for the peaceful coexistence of the peoples, objectively, unacceptable concessions from sovereign rights will be put – if they have not already been put – in order to reach a settlement. Therefore, there is no room for complacency”, concludes the head of the Central Committee of the KKE.