The president of the Movement for Democracy, Stefanos Kasselakis, gave us an exclusive tour of his offices a few weeks ago and, keeping his promise for an interview in the same space, today speaks to us differently about the political situation and his life.
You’re coming from the courts for the femicide case of Kyriaki Griva. Do you attend all the trials?
I have connected with many mothers. Kiki, Rosa, Eleni, Despoina. Kelly and Antonis from the organization “Become Human”. I listened to their proposals and joined them at the trials, so I could understand them. Do you know what it’s like to hear during the trial for your child’s murder, from the court president no less, “the state cannot save someone who doesn’t want to be saved”? How does a mother react? At that moment she’s defending her child’s memory. Against whom? Against the state itself? Do you know that the state is never there for victims’ families? They don’t even provide psychological support to the victims’ minor children and the grandparents who are called to raise them. In what callous state do we live?
We, following discussions with the mothers, the “Become Human” organization and other bodies, submitted a comprehensive bill to address femicide and gender-based/domestic violence.
At Tempi you had asked for Mitsotakis to be referred for high treason. Now at OPEKEPE you’re asking for him to be prosecuted for criminal organization. Aren’t these extreme charges?
Let me clarify this. First, on the Tempi issue. Let me remind you that the Union of Judges and Prosecutors had publicly protested K. Mitsotakis’s letter to the then Supreme Court prosecutor, saying that the prime minister’s public instructions regarding the investigation of the Tempi accident constituted “direct violation of the principle of separation of powers and indirect undermining of Justice’s prestige”. So what does the Constitution say? That one of the crimes of high treason is also the violation of the principle of separation of powers. And this is what the relatives requested to be investigated in their indictment and we naturally supported it. What was disturbing? The phrase “high treason”? Wasn’t the crime disturbing? For those who are offended by the phrase and not by the actions: The phrase exists in our Constitution.
The Constitution is not only Article 86, which the old political system created to whitewash their ministers’ responsibilities. The Constitution is our soul. And it wasn’t written with ink, but with the blood of our people’s struggles. People like Melpo Lekatsa and Sotiris Tsiakimakis, whom I feel great honor to have in the Movement for Democracy. The Constitution, our soul, we will defend to the end. About the criminal organization now: In the OPEKEPE scandal there is a specific structure.
There are people with names and surnames. And there are people with nicknames, that we only see in mafia movies. “The butcher” and “the frappe”. All together they negotiate with OPEKEPE executives, with political office directors, even with ministers. Specific people received these subsidies. Specific politicians and their associates pressed for “their people”. The organization’s administrators, who asked to check the tax numbers where subsidies went, were led to resignation.
Our country has so far received a fine of half a billion. The European Prosecutor’s Office describes the existence of a criminal organization. Chilling excerpts of conversations between ministers, deputy ministers, MPs, political office directors and OPEKEPE executives have emerged. Even a conversation with references to murder was made public. And we’re discussing whether it’s a criminal organization? When no one holds you back, you can speak openly and honestly. And that’s what I do. And I’m proud both as a European and as a Greek. Not for the quality of our politicians, but for the honest people of our homeland. These I will represent.
I heard you at your party’s congress saying “I bent”. Hand on heart, did you ever think of giving up?
I bent. I’m human. In these two and a half years that I’ve been in the country’s political life I’ve experienced everything. Victories, splits, questioning, a system wanting to tear me apart. Yet I’m standing. Thanks to the stubbornness of people who want change. I bent, but I didn’t break.
During your outings and tours, do people flirt with you?
Come on a tour with me to see. You’ll also see what a normal tour is like. Not staged, but unmediated. I’m certain you’ll draw your conclusions and see that they flirt with us politically. People who were led to abstention by the political system’s betrayal. People who feel trapped in the old parties.
Does Tyler get jealous?
Ask him yourself! You’re Cretan but your summer house is in Spetses. What were your childhood summers like on the island? A house full of friends. Days full of laughter. Bike rides in Dapia Square, in front of Bouboulina’s statue. Evening movies at “Marina” cinema. Spetses is my summers. My memories. The place I always want to return to. It sounds like Alexis Tsipras will start his own party. Does this development worry you? Not at all. I’ve said it many times anyway: In politics you should be judged, not hide.
* Published in Parapolitika on July 19
