SYRIZA: The 4 who left, and those who follow

It broke up… squealing. SYRIZA is flourishing after the establishment of a new party announced by Stefanos Kasselakis, in the shadow of the events at the congress on Friday, and the possibility of losing the position of official opposition is visible. SKAI presents the MPs who are preparing to become independent, changing the human geography of the Parliament.

Essentially, for the first time in history, an official opposition party is in danger of losing its institutional role. SYRIZA and PASOK have an absolute “tie” in seats, out of 31, however SYRIZA remains in the official opposition, as it had a larger percentage in the 2023 elections. Who will be the fifth person to take up the burden of ousting SYRIZA from its institutional role? This may be done in a coordinated way, not by a member of parliament. What we are expecting according to information from Monday, in the first phase, are four MPs who belong to Mr. Kasselakis to resign from the chairmanship of the SYRIZA Committee and from the important roles they have, i.e. a step before independence. Ms. Tzakri is the secretary of KO, Mr. Gavrilos and Sarikiotis will no longer be parliamentary representatives, and Iota Poulos will no longer be the coordinator of the parliamentary work. Are they looking to find the number ’10’? To set up a KO? It remains to be seen in the coming days, just as it remains to be seen whether this is possible.

Does SYRIZA have answers to avoid losing the privileges of the official opposition in the national delegation? He doesn’t have many. There is the MP Athena Linou who has become independent, but her cohabitation with Mr. Polaki is very difficult… At the moment she has not decided what she will do if she returns to SYRIZA.

So far their independence has been announced by the MP of Corfu Alexandros Avlonitis, the MP of Kilkis Petros Pappas, the MP of B3′ South Sector of Athens Rallia Christidou and the MP of Halkidiki Kyriaki Malama.

“Stain of apostasy and conspiracy plan”

They denounce the independence of MPs to the SYRIZA PS, citing a “stigma of apostasy and a conspiracy plan”.

“At this moment, SYRIZA PS is completing the institutional procedures of the extraordinary conference with the speeches of the four candidates. Some, however, believe that they can move their parliamentary seats as they move their bodies,” stated circles of the official opposition.

“However, after yesterday’s events, one can easily see that the seats that we hear are being vacated today are not transferred to Stefanos Kasselakis, but much more they carry the position of the official opposition to Mr. Androulakis. In the same way that they will carry the stigma of apostasy. This can be nothing more than a conspiracy plan that wants to remove the role of official opposition from SYRIZA PS” they pointed out.

“So far! SYRIZA PS has proven that it is not a dead body like those who are trying to break its body. Because both in the opposition and in the government, he always expresses the social anxiety of the citizens and will not allow any project of interests to determine his future” they say.

“Kasselakis Organized Plan”

SYRIZA accuses Stefanos Kasselakis of an organized plan, which had emerged a long time ago, announcing the completion of the work of the extraordinary conference. During the conference, the true aspirations of Stefanos Kasselakis were fully revealed, as well as the organized plan that had been emerging for some time,” it is emphasized.

“He had the rival party ready for days and, while he was supposedly protesting outside the Congress, he had the announcement and the offices of the new party ready. Everything that happened yesterday with the mobbings and the verbal and not only attacks have nothing to do with the Left and the progressive space, just as it has nothing to do with him, as it turned out,” notes Koumoundourou.

“Petros Pappas is a willing defector”

Especially regarding the independence of Petros Pappas, in a statement SYRIZA notes that he was “distinguished” for a series of positions and initiatives, which were outside the framework of the Left and for which he had been reprimanded.

“His political presence reflects the genre and stigma of the ‘new, coming’. He himself is a typical sample of Kasselakis party executive. Now that the liquidation plan of SYRIZA has been revealed, a leader and implementer is entering it.”

“He will always remain steeped in infamy. He will always bear the stigma of the willing renegade. Especially if a party is found, besides Kasselakis, to gather him and save him from political obscurity” concludes Koumondourou.

“We’re Electing a President, Not a Prince – Surrender Seats Those Who Leave”

A “fire team” against Stefanos Kasselakis, but also the MPs who support them, was unleashed at the SYRIZA PS conference. With speeches by congressmen, the work of the extraordinary congress continues since the morning in the shadow of Friday’s episodes. The conference ends today, Saturday, as announced.

“Those MPs who are thinking of leaving the party should thank Alexis Tsipras for putting them on these lists and surrender the seats,” said Kostas Arvanitis. “The seats belong to SYRIZA PS. No more kidding, we will not tolerate it, we will be very strict, no more petting. The words ‘comrades’ have value and dignity, at least leave with dignity”, he added addressing those SYRIZA MPs who become independent to follow Stefanos Kasselakis.

“We are in the next day, we are electing a president of the party, not a ruler or a prince. And the article of the statute clearly states where the president moves, in the context of the decisions of the EC”, said Tryfon Alexiadis. He spoke about the problems of the party’s operation, adding that whoever is elected president, if he does not respect the statute and his commitments, he will be the first to criticize. He commented that “yesterday proved and highlighted our organizational crap, it was a black day. The photo I saw afterwards, so many people waiting outside and few people inside, is the responsibility of all of us and we must apologize profusely to the comrades who suffered and we must all pledge that it will not happen again.”

“Reality showed the plan of the split, but it was so obvious where it was going for so long”

“We now have to measure ourselves. Let the people come to the polls for the election of the leader to show that this space is not dying”, said Dimitris Chatzisokratis. Putting against Mr. Kasselakis commented that “what happened last night here and today in Taurus was the end of a chronicle of a hidden split and the beginning of a new course of another ‘movement'”. “The reality showed the plan for the split, but it was so obvious where it was going for so long,” he said. He commented that Mr. Kasselakis in Tavros “dare” to say that he was in a dilemma yesterday about whether to legitimize the conference with silence or to speak, “but delegates had spoken earlier”. He said in particular that in any case the number of 2,784 who voted yesterday for the decisions of the conference is greater than the 1,934 signatures delivered by Th. Jakri. “That’s the reality,” he said.

The position that the main problem of SYRIZA was that “we stopped talking to each other politically, we lost the thread with the working class, George Vassiliadis expressed, arguing that the big bet of the next day is for SYRIZA to talk politically with society again. “We need a strong SYRIZA because the next day will be difficult. To build on our structures, to speak politically again, not to repeat our mistakes”, he said, adding that in order to do this, a strong SYRIZA is needed and to become a leader in the restructuring of the space. “Let’s get back out of the offices and back into the streets,” he continued, stressing that the elections should become a point of re-start.