“These developments are self-destructive for SYRIZA. We’re running a lottery,” former SYRIZA Director General Efthimios Georgopoulos said to SKAI and on the show “Dekatianoi” with Yiannis Pittaras and Giorgos Grigoriadis.

Mr. Georgopoulos emphasized that “on the left there is a culture, which says that we have very easy criticism, sometimes polemical, but we also have self-criticism. Mr. Kasselakis cannot stand criticism, he cannot stand a different point of view. It gives me the impression that he did not understand which party he came to lead.”

“Mr. Kasselakis always gave me the impression of a man who had a slogan: God help me from criticism because I know how to protect myself from self-criticism,” he said characteristically.

Referring to the statements about “black” funds in SYRIZA, he said: “What brought Mr. Kasselakis to the point of shooting himself in the foot and talking about “black” funds? There are no black funds in SYRIZA. For some oligarchs to come and give you a “bag” of money means two things: Either you are in the government and you are “petting” with assignments that the other person will give the “gift”, or you are in the opposition but you vote favorably for the oligarchs who want to do their job. Let someone tell us when and in what way SYRIZA supported what it is complaining about”.

“The president of SYRIZA is a talker. One day he talks about “black” funds, the next he tried to collect them”, added Mr. Georgopoulos.

As he explained, “SYRIZA has inputs from state funding, member contributions of up to 75,000 euros per year, MP contributions that reach 20% of the parliamentary compensation. Finally, there are the famous people who can donate up to 20,000 euros per year to the party. After the election result of June 25, 2023, I informed from the first moment that the state funding would be reduced by around 3.5 million euros. A plan should be made for 2024. Until 31.12.2023 the needs were completely covered”.

“The big problem was about 2024. From the beginning, I had sounded the alarm that very specific measures had to be taken,” he added.

Regarding Avgi and Kokkino, Mr. Georgopoulos pointed out that “the management of the two media, Yiannis Drosos and Lefteris Arvanitis, had submitted a comprehensive study that provided for a series of measures to rationalize the two media, and especially Avgi. Yes, he predicted a Sunday paper of Dawn.”

“When you take over, you have to know what can fall into your hands. A president is not only political or communication management. It is the management of the entire organization and the party. The easy solution is to blame it on the previous ones,” he added.

Asked if a motion of censure against Mr. Kasselakis is expected to be submitted to the central committee on July 7, Mr. Georgopoulos replied: “I don’t think so, I wouldn’t want it to happen.” But I would like to have a substantial discussion about the disputes that we have left in the air.

“Because there has been a huge targeting with the ’87, we have not challenged any president, we have not called for his impeachment, we are not traitors, disruptors. We are people who say the obvious. The election result has not been discussed and we are not celebrating,” he added.