The occasion this time was the publication of the questionnaire that was uploaded to iSYRIZA and leaves open the possibility of changing the logo, even the name, a possibility to which many top executives reacted strongly and most of all those who have a reference to Alexis Tsipras.
According to information, late yesterday afternoon, 17 of the 21 members of the party’s Political Secretariat filed a request for the party’s governing body to meet immediately, if possible tomorrow. The request was sent via email to party secretaries. “The voice of the members above mine”, reacted from London where Stefanos Kasselakis is for his speech at the LSE today, while according to information from Koumoundourou, a meeting time of the Political Secretariat is being sought for tomorrow.
Earlier, executives such as Olga Gerovasilis, Panos Rigas, Christos Spirtzis, Katerina Notopoulou and others, executives who kept a low tone of criticism towards Stefanos Kasselakis, “opened fire” against the new leader who “dared” to interfere with the… loyal and holy ones of SYRIZA.
Open conflict
And we are referring to the occasion, as it has long been clear from the report that Stefanos Kasselakis and his staff have made the decision to clash with the so-called party establishment, not excluding Alexis Tsipras himself. Investing in the people who support the new leader and believing that if they survive this political battle, they will block the way to the return of Tsipras and have a chance to recover. “Strategy of “I finish or they finish me” from Kasselakis” was the title of the headline on the front page of the “Free Sunday Press” for the SYRIZA report and before a few hours passed the reality confirmed it.
The beginning was made by the usually mild and measured statements of Olga Gerovasili, who expressed her surprise at the Kasselakis questionnaire and requested the extraordinary convening of the Political Secretariat and the Central Committee before the start of the Congress.
“I was very surprised to read on the iSYRIZA website the initiative of the president, Stefanos Kasselakis, to ask the opinion of the party members on issues related to the structure, name, logo, as well as the political identity of SYRIZA-PS. Five days before the Congress, identity issues are selected and asked, in the form of a poll questionnaire, which constitute the conference decisions and statutory positions of our party. Key, critical and important issues are not raised in the public sphere, since they have not been raised either in the positions or in the public, and not even in the internal party dialogue of the party members. I would expect, therefore, from the president, before asking these identification questions about our party to our members on the electronic platform, to tell us exactly what he is proposing, that is, what is his own position on the above. The minimum I am obliged to do after all this is to immediately request the extraordinary convening of the leading organs of the party, i.e. the Political Secretariat and the Central Committee, before the convening of the Congress. That is, before this de facto developed into a Congress to dissolve the party that Alexis Tsipras brought to govern the country and which he handed over to his successor in the position of official opposition”.
Kasselakis and Christos Spirtzis are against the initiative, who speaking to ERT said that “many of these (he means those on the questionnaire) are expired issues. The president of SYRIZA is probably not informed” and noted that identity issues end at the Congress, challenging Stefanos Kasselakis to put his proposals to a vote.
“The Congress is the highest organ of the party. No process, no matter how serious the issues it introduces, can replace it. The statute of a party is also its constitution”, said Mrs. Notopoulou, also highlighting that Tsipras line, that is to drag Stefanos Kasselakis into a confrontation at the Congress and not to have a result through the votes in iSYRIZA which will come for ratification at the Conference.
The Kasselakis questionnaire is a replacement, according to Nikos Pappas, who leaked that the statute – which binds everyone – with the changes of 2022 provides for universal participation of members and that the questionnaire limits the party’s personality, is incomplete because it does not seek responsibilities starting at the top.
The Kasselakis side, however, characterizes these reactions as “reactions of the old SYRIZA that the world has condemned” and insists on the need for the changes proposed by the new president through the questionnaire.
The first response to SYRIZA executives came from Theodora Tzakri who spoke of “chieftains”. “We will not hesitate to innovate, to break down doctrines, to change ourselves, to overturn hierarchies, to pay the costs, to be worthy of the circumstances, because it has never been enough in history to simply change people. There is no more room left for procedural objections, nor can there be any room for the ambitions of leaders at a critical moment,” he said characteristically.
A little while later, with his post on social media, Stefanos Kasselakis insisted, inviting everyone to enter the questionnaire, in order to “strengthen the only alternative to the governmental dystopia and support my effort”.
“Since 2019, the progressive world has been shouting at us to ‘change everything'”, emphasizes Stefanos Kasselakis in his post-response, urging all SYRIZA members to fill out the questionnaire. “Your answers will help both me and the party organs in our decisions. We are not talking here about news polls but about a process of intra-party democracy,” he notes.
Critical three days
The three days leading up to the opening speech of the Conference by Stefanos Kasselakis on Thursday night at Tae Kwon Do in Palaio Faliro is now considered by all sides to be extremely critical for SYRIZA.
The Kasselakis side is said to be unwilling to back down in its bid to turn the 4th Congress into essentially a Congress that will bring the end of SYRIZA founded by Alexis Tsipras and the beginning of a new party.
The Tsipras side and the cadres who have remained in SYRIZA and support the former leader were taken by surprise and are challenging the new leader to an open battle, i.e. to votes on his proposals, so that he is disapproved and forced to leave.
Of course, there is always the third way, before the final rupture, that of flexibility and final compromise. It does not accumulate many chances, but it still exists, as executives from the “pasochogeneis” or from the new generation who have their own strategy (Dionysis Teboneras) on the one hand do not want to be identified with Stefanos Kasselakis, but on the other hand do not want to trapped in the Tsipras group as well.
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