The result of the European elections was described as satisfactory by the president of SYRIZA-PS, Stefanos Kasselakis, who announced organizational and statutory changes in the party, called for joint action by the Parliamentary Group of PASOK, where there are coincidences, and predicted that Kyriakos Mitsotakis will not lead the ND in a third electoral contest.

Speaking on the radio “Parapolitika fm”, Mr. Kasselakis said “mea culpa” for “the display of his houses” but not for his pothen esches that he presented in the pre-elections and explained: “It may have pushed some people away but the display of the pothen esches revealed and the hypocrisy of the ND. They wanted to assassinate my character and they didn’t succeed. For my part, I wanted to keep my promise. I kept my word.

The platform for Pothen Esches is not yet open. I presented mine, others have gotten rich from politics in our country. I am a 36 year old who returned to his country to offer and has presented all his business activity. The answer to their political inadequacy and failure to deal with the world’s problems is my character assassination. I endured, SYRIZA endured and we are moving forward. I will give detailed information on why and I will challenge the prime minister and the other officials to do the same.”

Mr. Kasselakis repeated the attacks on the non-transparency of ND’s finances. He characteristically said: “SYRIZA did not get one euro of black money, the fact that so many black bags are circulating for the campaigns, this is the politics in Greece. Let’s start with the ND debt settlement that the Greek people don’t know about. Is it possible for the ruling party to have 500 million in debt and campaign more expensively than in Germany? The Greek people have a right to know where the money is in politics.”

On evaluating the result he said: “We have power in the popular districts which means that defamation of my face did not succeed. People understand who is on their side and tells the truth.

I am not jumping for joy, it is but a very satisfactory and based on the conditions good result. ND fell from 41% to 28%, this did not happen automatically. Someone objected, purposefully, loudly. Together with our initiatives for the precision, for Tempi, we set the agenda and exposed the government”.

Mr. Kasselakis said that “we have made progress” and cited that in several regions such as Athens A, Western Sector, Achaia, Piraeus B, Chania, SYRIZA significantly reduced the difference from the ND in relation to the 2023 elections. Regarding the rumors that Pavlos Polakis did not support the pre-election effort, he said: “I do not comment on petty politics and parapolitics. But Pavlos supported and we had assigned him meetings with hospitals and he is praised on the islands”.

Regarding the criticism he receives from within the party he said: “When you have a whole system that wants to assassinate your character something is wrong. I am proud that SYRIZA endured. After the split there were polls showing SYRIZA at 8%. Now together with the New Left it is at 17.4%. I am proud of SYRIZA and of the result.”

He also said that he did not run a one-man show campaign (in response to an article by Thanasis Karteros) and argued that the SYRIZA ballot came from the choice of the members, while he disagreed with the assessment of Christos Spirtzis that “with the result we should we cry.”

Regarding the future relations with PASOK, he said: “I invite the parliamentary group to work together on legislative proposals that we agree on. PASOK’s leadership knows how to contact my office.” He clarified that “there are issues we disagree on, such as in the migration pact in Europe. But there are also issues on which we can agree. I do not extend a hand of friendship to PASOK as a whole. We are continuing our renewal strategy.”

As for the PASOK – New Left cooperation scenario, he said “as long as I am president of SYRIZA there will be no cooperation with this formation of the New Left, it is unacceptable and immoral that they have not returned the seats. They have not been able to elect an MEP and say that ‘it is ridiculous that we are asking them to return the seats’. Everyone is judged by their decisions. I think they will be judged very badly by the people.” For the proposals for wider cooperation that also include the New Left – such as e.g. of Dionysis Tebonera-, answered:

“Anyone who wants the New Left to cooperate with SYRIZA does not include the president of SYRIZA. No one is forcing anyone to stay in SYRIZA, if someone is not happy with the changes we are making, it is their right to choose another path, we will continue to renew SYRIZA.

I got the messages too. There is a world that says “we believe you, we want you to be the opponent of the Right, but you also have to build a team and show solidity and clear proposals”.

“We will build a team of progressive excellence.”

To a question about whether he will proceed with a reorganization of the organs in SYRIZA, he answered: “Tomorrow I will announce my thoughts to the Parliamentary Group. We will proceed on the course we have decided on and in a constitutional conference that will modernize the party’s structure. At the beginning of October, the party’s constitution will be drawn up and there will be an election of bodies. There will be statutory changes, everything will be normal.” To a question about whether he will change the procedures for the disciplinary and the possibility of deletions from the president, he answered: “There must be a counterweight to the president, he cannot delete by himself, but the president must have the flexibility to exercise opposition and govern based on the program positions of the party”.

For the SYRIZA Media, he said: “We are working on all options and I am optimistic that appropriate solutions will be found to continue. At Belogiannis’ house, I was moved when I saw in a photo that he was holding “Avgi”. I have a party with a long history and a newspaper that has inspired people. I am fully aware of my responsibility.”

Mr. Kasselakis also said that “in time you will also know the government with which I will govern. The team will be true progressive excellence. People will know how to govern and there will be proposals for laws on a number of issues.”

He also referred to the developments in ND: “I predict that Mr. Mitsotakis will not come down to be re-elected. The countdown has begun. He will follow the course of Simitis. We will take over a country that will have impoverished a third, the other third will not be able to pay their bills, and a few will get rich.”

To a question about whether he will vote for Katerina Sakellaropoulou for the Presidency of the Republic, he said that “I will answer at the right time”.

He finally confirmed that his earlier statement that “by the time we’re 40 we will have a child with Tyler” is true, but added “beyond that it’s a family matter that concerns our personal lives.”