By Yannis Anifantis

The candidate for the party’s presidency, Pavlos Polakis, reiterated his opposition to scenarios to remove Stefanos Kasselakis as a member of SYRIZA in the Parliament’s peristyle, after the extrajudicial letter that the former President sent yesterday to the members of the Political Secretariat and the Central Committee, due to the leak of his whereabouts before the release of the remaining candidates.

With his new statement this time in the Parliament, the Chanioti MP explained that “I don’t want to eliminate him, I want to beat him“, reiterating, however, that the action of the extrajudicial mission was unacceptable, calling on the ousted president of SYRIZA to withdraw it.

“I see that he continues the same apolitical tactic, and unfortunately I see some grist to the mill of political confrontation“, he added, referring to the courtroom and also to yesterday’s stormy meeting of the Central Committee which decided on the extraordinary convening of the Central Committee next Saturday, with him bringing back to the table his initiative for an immediate meeting of the 5 candidates, saying that he has already talked and agreed with Nikolas Faradouris and Apostolos Gletsos.

The statement of Pavlos Polakis in detail at Peristyle:

“I feel the need to address the members of SYRIZA again today because I saw that my proposals were partially accepted. I find it unacceptable to leak a poten esches, but equally and more unacceptable the extrajudicial. Yesterday I asked for the public posting of all the related issues because political figures should not have anything to hide.

The presidential election process must be used to open up to society. There is a never-ending war here. I see that Stefanos Kasselakis is continuing the same apolitical tactic and unfortunately I see some people pouring water into the mill of political confrontation

I call on him to take back the court immediately. I call on Rania Svigou and Nikos Pappa to convene a meeting of the 5 candidates. Nikolas Farandouris and Apostolos Gletsos have already agreed.

And of course let’s set the dates of one or two teleconferences and one of them to take place before the conference. I call on everyone to stop the write-off scenarios. We should not drive people away but gather them, especially now that it has become apparent that PASOK cannot.

We want a large turnout at the conference. I do not agree with the Saturday Central Committee. The meeting of the 5 should take place today or tomorrow to resolve all issues. Since everyone’s whereabouts have been posted, even the most unscrupulous person who convinced him to file the out-of-court case should be told to take it back.

There is no historical precedent for a former president to send an extrajudicial letter to the party he wants to lead, and there is no historical precedent for the Central Committee to delete a presidential candidate. I don’t think there should be a deletion. We must face each other on equal footing. I don’t want to exclude him, I want to beat him».