Pavlos Polakis delivered an ultimatum to Sokratis Famelos on Wednesday afternoon (10/6) speaking on OPEN, demanding he reach an agreement with Alexis Tsipras within ten days and warning of immediate developments otherwise.
In the shadow of the SYRIZA Central Committee’s decision, the Chania MP stated “I believe there has been an agreement that no one publicly admits, otherwise the decision is a display of servility.”
Polakis: “Famelos must bring negotiations with Tsipras’ ELAS”
“There is no historical precedent for a party president saying he supports another party. I consider this deeply wrong. I’m not doing police reporting but it’s obvious you can’t state you support another party while there has been no understanding, and at the same time have Koufonikilakou saying we don’t want collaborations,” Pavlos Polakis said characteristically.
“Famelos, after the Central Committee decision, must bring an agreement with Tsipras, tell us what’s happening. Supporting a party means I have negotiated, put down proposals and positions – because I haven’t seen Alexis Tsipras’ positions. He must bring within the next 10 days an agreement or negotiation with Tsipras’ ELAS. If he doesn’t bring it, the bastard situation cannot continue to exist. If he doesn’t bring it, there should be a meeting of the Political Secretariat and Central Committee to consider the facts.”
According to Mr. Polakis, “SYRIZA must run in the next elections with a unifying ballot of forces that want and can, if negotiation with ELAS doesn’t bear fruit. I don’t think Famelos can lead such an effort, he has a different political view.”
As he emphasized, “historic parties don’t dissolve because some people decided so. Because Tsipras resigned, should the universe resign, pull down its pants and leave?”
“We as SYRIZA have issued an invitation to all democratic forces, if Tsipras doesn’t accept it, that’s his problem. When the other talks about unity and refuses to speak on this ground believing he has the privilege of truth, this turns against him,” Mr. Polakis added.
Regarding SYRIZA’s polling image, Pavlos Polakis said “the leadership team around Famelos bears responsibility for managing SYRIZA without official formation of an Executive Office since Famelos was elected. Imagine if I had taken over the party at 10% and brought it to 1% or 2%? I didn’t see any assumption of responsibility or explanation. Shouldn’t there be some explanation?”
“I, together with Pappas and Dourou and other Political Secretariat members, submitted a specific proposal for what SYRIZA should do in the coming period, which practically said we must go in an organized way to a conversation both with Tsipras’ ELAS and with democratic forces for front formation to bring down the Mitsotakis government. Of course we want unity but based on SYRIZA’s program. The left is not a station for some people’s careers, the left is moral dignity and program. Instead, a decision passed saying it would be a strategic mistake to oppose ELAS, we stand beside it, support it, don’t see it competitively but fraternally.”
He also issued a call “from Tsipras’ party to NEAR to MERA 25 to KKE and Kotzias’ PRATTO and ecological groups, telling them to position themselves for a programmatic agreement for changing the country’s foreign policy for new security architecture with restoration of relations with Russia, cancellation of all memorandum laws with restoration of 13th-14th salary and solution to private debt issue, reclaiming public goods DEH, lignites, Ptolemaida 5 to operate, national bank with sovereign public role, ELPE with public management, doubling hospital doctors’ salaries, changing state structure with transferring competencies to municipalities, changing justice’s role because the people who cover up Tempi cannot remain as power organs.”
When asked who would lead such an agreement, Mr. Polakis said “if the problem is who is leader, if they agree on these, there are many ways to decide who will be leader, starting with letting the people decide.”
