A frozen atmosphere prevailed in the room where the Political Secretariat of SYRIZA was meeting. Pavlos Polakis, addressing Sokratis Famellos, asked him whether the Koumoundourou party would run independently in the next elections. “Comrade president, SYRIZA will run independently in the next elections, isn’t that right?” the Chania MP asked his party’s president and even urged him to make a public statement to clarify matters.
Charged atmosphere at SYRIZA Political Secretariat meeting
Silence fell over the room and, in order for Pavlos Polakis to justify his stance, he added: “Some are walking around the corridors saying they will go with Tsipras. But we won’t all go.” At the SYRIZA Political Secretariat meeting, the atmosphere was obviously charged, as the overwhelming majority of officials anxiously await the next move by the former prime minister. In this climate, Rena Dourou referred to Alexis Tsipras as comrade, but immediately rushed to correct herself, saying that the former prime minister is not a comrade since he left the party.
Famellos distances himself from Karystianos’s potential party
However, at the meeting, which is the first in a long time, the party president in his speech appeared to maintain clear distances from Maria Karystianos’s potential party, saying: “We supported and will support all struggles for justice in the Tempe crime,” clarifying however that “the answer to society’s demand for political change cannot be anti-politics and leveling.”
The SYRIZA president launched an attack on the government, accusing New Democracy of far-right rhetoric on immigration, constant workplace accidents, institutional deviations and attempts to cover up the OPEKEPE scandal. The SYRIZA president argued that “in the seventh year of ND governance, the deadlocks and problems are multiplying,” speaking of “covering up blue scandals” and the need for “full investigation and accountability.”
“There is no more time to waste” – New message for progressive forces cooperation
Sokratis Famellos insisted on the proposal for cooperation of progressive forces, emphasizing that “there is no more time to waste” and that “citizens are looking for a credible body that can defeat ND and govern.” “The answer to today’s regime of injustice and corruption must be left-wing, progressive and democratic,” he stressed, warning that otherwise “anti-political, supposedly anti-systemic or far-right forces” will be strengthened. It should be noted that throughout this period, information has been circulating suggesting that Sokratis Famellos is in contact with Nikos Androulakis and Alexis Charitsis, in order to move together after the first ballot in the elections.
“Fire” over the Chios tragedy
Sokratis Famellos attacked the government fiercely for what happened in Chios with the unjust death of migrants. “The supposedly centrist and pseudo-modernist Mitsotakis government has chosen to have as Minister of Migration a far-right representative of Trumpism and tolerates the views of the equally far-right vice-president of ND and Health Minister in favor of illegal pushbacks. It is clear that the government chooses far-right audiences, removing rights from the vulnerable,” said the SYRIZA president and added: “This constant human drama must stop, something that can be done with respect for International Law, Maritime Law and human rights and with legal and safe migration and asylum routes, within the framework of a new European Migration and Asylum Pact, which is the only way to deal with trafficking networks that profit from human pain. And not with the Migration Pact that ND co-shaped, which turns Greece into a prison of souls, for the benefit of Northern European countries.”
Regarding constitutional revision he mentioned that:
– While Mr. Mitsotakis has brutally violated the Constitution with wiretapping, with violation of Article 86, with overdue legislation of the implementing law for the limitation period, with the transformation of colleges into universities, with a series of authoritarian bans on constitutional freedoms, now he appears as promoting Constitutional Revision. He asks for consensus, when he did not even seek it in the election of the President of the Republic. We will not allow the Constitution to become a victim of his communication plan and his deeply conservative politics.
– He cultivates social automatism against civil servants aiming to lift tenure through evaluation application, to arrange their favors, make layoffs and privatizations.
– With the revision of Article 16 he attempts to give the final blow to public universities for the benefit of colleges.
– By establishing a fiscal brake in the country’s Constitution he attempts to “constitutionalize” austerity and cartel profits.
– Yes, Constitutional Revision is needed, but also a progressive government that will respect constitutional rules and strengthen the rule of law in Greece.
