A clear message about the need for political change was delivered by the president of the SYRIZA-PS Parliamentary Group, Rena Dourou. In a television interview on SKAI’s “Reportage at 10” program, the MP for Western Athens stressed that her party can act as a guarantor of a broader programmatic agreement. The goal of such cooperation, she stated, is to remove the current right-wing government, which she accused of squeezing and battering Greek society for the past seven years. At the same time, Ms. Dourou emphasized that SYRIZA operates with complete transparency in public dialogue, putting forward clear policy positions without backroom negotiations, behind-the-scenes maneuvers, or secret phone calls.
Rena Dourou: “SYRIZA existed before Tsipras and will exist after him”
“We, SYRIZA-PS, can be the guarantors of a programmatic agreement that must be made, in order to remove this right-wing government that has been battering Greek society for seven years.” This was among the remarks made by Rena Dourou, President of the SYRIZA-PS Parliamentary Group and MP for Western Athens, during her interview today on SKAI’s “Reportage at 10,” with journalists Mina Karamitrou and Giorgos Grigoriadis. She simultaneously underlined that “SYRIZA-PS is clear — on positions, on programmatic convergences, in the public dialogue — without behind-the-scenes maneuvers, without backroom dealings, without phone calls being picked up and put down…”
She observed that “SYRIZA existed before Tsipras and before Dourou, and SYRIZA will exist after Tsipras and after Dourou,” adding that “SYRIZA must be protected in the name of its history and of the thousands of men and women who have fought for it.”
What she said about the residents of Kypseli
Dourou also highlighted the issue of government indifference, prompted by SYRIZA-PS’s participation in a major protest held yesterday by residents of Kypseli, who took to the streets over extensive damage caused to apartment buildings in the area by Metro construction works.
“Dozens of homes in dozens of apartment buildings have suffered significant damage because of the tunnel boring machine. It is shocking, and it is something that no one is talking about. Imagine waking up to go to work with cracks above your head and getting no response — not from the government, not from the consortium, not from Hellenic Metro. And this has been going on for months.”
“Assurances were given to the residents — they were asked to sign a statement saying that after the consortium’s inspection teams passed through, ‘everything is fine.’ The residents did not sign, and rightly so. And they have been waiting four months for assessments that the government refuses to provide. There is no explanation whatsoever about what will happen regarding relocation or restoration. I don’t want to play Cassandra, but as people were telling me yesterday: ‘What happens if there’s even the slightest tremor?'”
“SYRIZA doesn’t discover the value of coalitions only when the numbers don’t add up”
Rena Dourou, according to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA), stressed that the government must provide immediate answers, “but there is the familiar pattern: wiretapping scandals, OPEKEPE, Tempi — wherever there is responsibility, there is cover-up, and a veil has been drawn over a situation that simply cannot be tolerated.”
“SYRIZA-PS does not suddenly discover the value of coalitions when the numbers don’t add up — it’s in our charter, it’s in our very name. We are a Coalition, and we started out as a collaboration of progressive parties, a collaboration of progressive citizens,” she pointedly reminded.
“The government’s priority is not the majority of citizens who are being tested by their arrogance and callousness — their priority is the financial interests of the oligarchs who have been propping them up for seven years.”
“I have proven that I always put SYRIZA and collective action above personal interests”
When asked about the possibility of former party MPs who had declared independence returning to SYRIZA, Rena Dourou was unequivocal. She stated that it is inconceivable that “fighters of the Left stood in line at the ballot box on Sunday to give a popular mandate,” only for elected representatives to then take their seats and “do as they pleased.” The President of the SYRIZA-PS Parliamentary Group added: “We bear part of the responsibility for the devaluation of politics with all those who engage in this kind of thinking.”
“I have proven that I always put SYRIZA-PS and collective action above personal interests. I am referring to the moment I resigned my parliamentary seat in order to earn the right to fight for the Attica Region, among a series of other concrete actions. Right now, I will not pursue personal political gain and we will not move forward with such soap opera logic. We put people’s problems above everything else — we put our charter, our collective spirit, and the proud history of SYRIZA-PS in modern Greece first.”
