“Everything she was told to state about me is completely false. She knows it too. The wretchedness about “low wages”, about my alleged request for “exceptional salary”, about my alleged request for “insurance coverage” etc., are after the fact constructions of sick minds”, emphasizes in his statement George Tsiprasregarding statements made by SYRIZA’s Spokesperson, Mr. Voulas Kehagia.

“It would be just laughable if they didn’t signal the ethos of Koumoundourou’s ‘new SYRIZA’ which is disgusting to say the least,” he noted and added:

“I have been internally ‘cut off’ for many months not because I was exercising intra-party opposition but because I simply do not belong and have never belonged to the ‘Donkey flies?’ Fly!”. That’s where we ended up. Mrs. Voula Kehagia knows it too. That my “cut” would be followed by the character assassination operation was also to be expected. That this business is so childish and obviously malicious to everyone just shows the quality of the new bosses of Koumoundourou. And dangerous and very “few”.
I am still waiting, like other co-candidates and voters, for the detailed results of the SYRIZA primary elections. The world’s first “election” for which no results were announced, only a dry announcement of who qualified, according to “believe it and not research”. And this, at the same time that SYRIZA, correctly, is asking for more transparency from the government, but also from international observers for the elections in Greece.”

Kehaya: The party cannot bear to pay salaries to those who do not provide services

“St. Kasselakis is trying to manage the party’s finances, which are marginal. An effort is being made to fix our house, so that we can move forward”, stressed the representative of SYRIZA-PS, Voula Kehagia, speaking in the First Program of the ERA.

He said that “the interview of G. Tsipras was not a cause or an occasion for the termination of his contract, after all, what he said was on the official line, as formulated by the president of the Party, St. Kasselakis”. He stated that “at the end of February, Mr. Tsipras was replaced from his duties as director of the SYRIZA KO by Thanos Moraitis, because Mr. Tsipras was going to be a candidate for the European Parliament. Mr. Tsipras himself had asked the party to extend his contract for a period of one month, in order to have insurance coverage. His request was granted by the party. And in fact his contract was extended and not interrupted, even though he himself did not offer services, until the European elections…”.

He emphasized that “the overall message is that the party cannot afford to pay salaries to persons who do not provide services to it. An executive cannot be paid while his replacement has not yet been paid.”

Regarding the confrontation with Alexis Kougias, he said that there is no vendetta with the penitologist and that “what is happening is that Mr. Kougias belittles the public debate with vulgarity, without a trace of respect and without justifying what he says”. He reminded Kasselakis of yesterday’s initiative to invite progressive lawyers to side with him “so that all together go to the prosecutor and see what can be done about this particular case and this particular behavior, which is intensifying”.

Regarding the developments in the Center-Left, he mentioned that a discussion has opened in PASOK, which concerns the questioning of the leadership of Mr. Androulakis. “We don’t have such issues. We have a president, who was elected last September”, he added, mentioning that “St. Kasselakis was the one who opened the discussion, with his placement in the KO of SYRIZA, for the cooperation of the progressive forces”. Mrs. Kehagia said that the president of SYRIZA says that “as long as the society believes that it should move forward and establish a broader structure, a government body that will represent and represent the space of the Center-Left, I am present and I will put myself , as long as the issue of the nomination of the candidate for prime minister is raised, at the discretion of the grassroots”. He also stated that “in these processes, we have to admit that SYRIZA is the largest body” and that “Mr. Kasselakis, therefore, does not say that because we have higher percentages, I will be the head of this government structure”. But, he continued, “he says that since there is a demand to create this potentially governmental structure, I will not claim leadership as president of SYRIZA, but together with any other person who wishes to be a candidate, I will put forward a candidacy from the beginning at the base” .

V. Kehagia also referred to the amendment submitted yesterday by SYRIZA-PS to the bill that is being debated and voted on today, for the abolition of presumptive income taxation. “It is very important not to have this law with the horizontal tax on freelancers”, she emphasized in an interview with Action24, adding that “based on the report of the State General Accountant on this, the amount with which “will be charged “the state is 600 million euros”. He said that the numbers are coming in and they say that “from the beginning of the year until May 2024 the state had a tax surplus of 3.2 billion euros against a target of 802 million euros.” “If the government had lowered indirect taxes, it would have reduced the injustices,” noted Mrs. Kehagia.

Regarding the proposed law submitted by SYRIZA for the extraordinary taxation of the surplus profits of the refineries and the extraordinary taxation once of 90% of the surplus profits of the banks, he commented that “today the government that accused us is coming to our words” and that “the the measure announced today should have already been taken”.