Hours after SYRIZA‘s Central Committee meeting and while most party officials pretend they don’t understand what their voted decision means, those recorded as the minority have decided not to leave things to chance.
SYRIZA: What support for the Greek Left Alliance means
However, no matter how much some pretend they don’t understand what the Central Committee’s decision reference means when it states “In the effort to remove this corrupt and dangerous government and have a progressive government take charge, no one is expendable. It would be a strategic mistake for SYRIZA-PS to oppose the Greek Left Alliance. We stand by this initiative, we support it, we don’t see it as competitive, but as comradely” – things seem quite concrete.
The truth is that Sokratis Famellos avoided giving further explanations for his proposal, however this doesn’t mean that those directly interested don’t understand what this paragraph is talking about. Obviously in mild tones it refers to SYRIZA not running in the next elections in order to support Tsipras’s new venture. The dissenters are determined, however, to overturn this decision, even if SYRIZA voters migrate – as they are already doing silently – towards ELAS’s side. These officials, that is, will fight their battle for SYRIZA even if it has no voters.
Obviously, these officials represented by Pavlos Polakis, Nikos Pappas and Rena Dourou are reacting because with the Central Committee’s decision they lose both their party shelter and their political entity. In reality they lose even more since they don’t know with which political formation they will run in the elections.
Nikos Pappas: “Famellos must tear up the decision”
It’s characteristic that Nikos Pappas on Monday, referring to the decision, emphasized that “Sokratis Famellos must tear it up and specify the decision.” He added, moreover, that “it is absolutely Sokratis’s institutional obligation to see Tsipras and bring the agreement.”
More specifically he stated that “he must bring the agreement with Alexis Tsipras very quickly. If he doesn’t bring it, we’ll have a major issue. For himself too, he understands this himself. If it’s not self-dissolution, he must clarify the decision” and added: “Tsipras has said that whoever wants to come to my party must resign as MP. Since there’s also the position that ‘we don’t get involved in other parties’ internal affairs,’ I imagine and assume this position won’t change shortly before elections. You can’t be an MP until elections and resign two days before. We can’t see resignations at the end while until then functioning as a SYRIZA MP. I say no one should leave.”
Next, Nikos Pappas emphasized: “He said he has no communication with Tsipras, now he must have some. There’s a possibility of October elections, who will take responsibility if SYRIZA gets unplugged and there’s no agreement with Alexis Tsipras? Unless someone implies that even without agreement, we’ll follow Vasiliadis’s line ‘dissolve and come quietly.’ We want cooperation. I read it’s about chairs. Is this about chairs and not when they negotiate alone? I’ve defended my faction and will do so again. I won’t accept implications about personal strategies.”
Concluding, Nikos Pappas emphasized: “It’s absolutely Sokratis’s institutional obligation to see Tsipras and bring the agreement. Otherwise he must judge himself how he views his presidency. Something must be done.”
Symeon Kedikoglou: “SYRIZA is at a critical crossroads”
For his part, Evvia MP Symeon Kedikoglou emphasized that “if SYRIZA runs independently in elections it will mean a simple recording of forces and isolation,” while referring to SYRIZA’s Central Committee decision he stressed the situation resembles the movie “a hero in slippers.”
The SYRIZA MP noted that there’s no question of self-dissolution or stopping the party’s operation. As he mentioned, SYRIZA is at a critical crossroads.
“There’s no issue of either self-dissolution or stopping operations. Indeed, SYRIZA is at a critical crossroads and needed clear decisions. Until even Alexis Tsipras’s book presentation, remember, it was an established situation in the center-left where nothing changed, a fragmentation,” he said and continued: “At some point we said Alexis Tsipras came and stirred the stagnant waters of the center-left. Since then water has flowed, he’s made his vehicle, and it appears there’s momentum. Hope was given to people again that something can happen. It would therefore be contradictory, I believe, for SYRIZA, which I remind you all the previous period had honestly spoken about cooperations, even common ballots with PASOK, with New Left, with other parties, for the same party to say it doesn’t see the cooperation issue.”
“That people have already left you and you risk remaining an empty shirt, a shell that will only keep the name and some characteristics. So therefore, in today’s conditions, I think if we all want this government to leave, everyone must offer their forces toward this course,” he added.
