The official start of the internal elections in Syriza Progressive Alliance was marked by yesterday’s decision of the Political Secretariat, as Koumoundourou’s governing body declared candidates for the presidency of their party: Socrates Famello, Nikolas Farantouri, Pavlos Polakis and Apostolos Gletso.

However, the name of Stefanos Kasselakis was absent from the list of finalists, as the former SYRIZA president remains under suspension following the Central Committee’s decision and has an appointment at the November 8 Congress to seek the lifting of the impeachment motion against him.

“Unconventional phenomena”

Although yesterday’s decision by the Political Secretariat was almost discounted after the last meeting of the Central Committee, its members were quick to explain their political rationale, stating that “SYRIZA-PS is proceeding in a coherent manner, democratically, collectively and in full compliance with the statutory provisions in the extraordinary congress and the election of the party president”, stressing that “unfortunately, during this course, phenomena incompatible with our common course were observed”.

In this… “incompatible” condition, “the non-acceptance of collective decisions and the provisions of the statutes, the outlawry of the central committee and the political secretariat are politically unthinkable choices. Different misleading registers, separate buildings, references to coups and dictatorships are choices offensive to our history and antagonistic to our perspective. They are options to prepare another competing party to SYRIZA PS and its democratic processes,” as the Political Secretariat stressed, condensing the reasons for the expulsion of Stefanos Kasselakis from the electoral race.

At the same time, the text of the political decision was voted down by the Secretary of the SYRIZA CO and supporter of Mr. Kasselakis, Theodora Tzakri, reacting to the hybridity of the Congress as being antithetical. During yesterday’s address to the party organ, Ms Tzakri raised a number of questions of an organisational nature insisting on ensuring the secrecy of the vote, following the finalisation of the organisation of the Congress at the “Gazi Live” multi-purpose venue on 8-10 November. “It is obvious that a left-wing party is proceeding in a hard class way. The haves should participate and the have-nots should not come,” observed the Secretary of the SYRIZA PS CO, adding that “on the other hand, the answer is not in the hybridity of the congress.”

However, Theodora Tzakri was the only one to cast a minority vote in yesterday’s vote, as Rena Dourou, Olympia Teligioridou, Panos Rigas and Nikos Skorinis followed their usual – now – stance, asking for the internal party part of the decision to be isolated and voting only for the political part. In agreement with the whole spirit of the decision, Pavlos Polakis also appeared, who still wants Mr. Kasselakis to participate in the electoral arena.

“Good luck”

On the former president’s part, “Stefanos Kasselakis will be a presidential candidate” said sources close to him immediately after the meeting, giving a “date” at the congress for “the restoration of democracy”. “However much the opportunistic majority in the Political Secretariat may insist, the congress was and remains the supreme body and the only one competent to decide on the nominations for the presidency,” the same sources said, with majority circles “wishing” Mr. Kasselakis “good luck.”

As pointed out by the majority, “Stefanos Kasselakis has the impression that he can claim whatever he wants. He goes so far as to talk about fear for the base against members, executives and deputies who have been elected many times by the base and the society, while he himself did not accept the appeal to the base and presidential elections, asked for impeachment and when it was passed he started the outcries and insults against his party, denying the result.”

They added: “He constantly invokes the congress and at the same time constantly circulates fake news and slander even about the pre-congress proceedings, in essence preparing the excuses to challenge the result of the congress as well. All he achieves with all this is to confirm that he has chosen his own path. Good luck to him. SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance will move forward with its collective decisions”.

The next steps

For several members of the majority, moreover, Stefanos Kasselakis is “setting up an exit route from SYRIZA PC, creating a climate of questioning the congress process”, as they observed after yesterday’s decision of the Political Secretariat and given that only 2,500 new members have reportedly been registered recently (and after the invitation of the former President), when SYRIZA PC has 230,000 members.

For this reason, the same executives believe that the elections of the Senators this weekend will be the “supreme dress rehearsal” for the upcoming Congress, given that it will record the current correlation between the majority and the “Casselists”, which, they stress, is “the best poll in the grassroots.”

On the flip side, a few hours after yesterday’s decision, Stefanos Kasselakis told Kontra Channel that “I will be a candidate because the overwhelming majority of SYRIZA wants me as its president,” pledging that “if I lose at the ballot box, I will remain in SYRIZA.” In fact, Kasselakis warned that “if we are to continue in such a process I believe that SYRIZA will be liquidated” and declared himself “present” at the upcoming Congress, saying that “nothing has changed, we will go to the Congress and vote this weekend”. He countered that “the Congress will approve both the nominations and the withdrawal of confidence in the President”, while “it is time to tell the people clearly. Nothing is finished, that we are going to the Congress as normal. Don’t listen to what they say,” he concluded.

Technological knowledge from… coronavirus

According to reports, the former SYRIZA president will intensify his political activity in the coming days, in the wake of yesterday’s decision, which he believes reflects the “fear” of his internal party opponents about the final election result against his candidacy.

In this context, Kasselakis is expected to present his programmatic framework from tomorrow, Friday, i.e. the government program that he had started working on for months with his staff, part of which is, for example, his proposal on tax policy, and he will participate as a candidate for the presidential election this weekend.

In the meantime, the Central Congress Organizing Committee (CCOE) is meeting today to settle the final technical details for the Congress, also responding to the Casselakis side’s claims of hybridity. Party sources recalled yesterday that Greeks from abroad participated in last February’s congress hybridly and voted in absolute secrecy in the polls that were held, while accumulated experience in hybrid procedures exists in Koumoundourou since 2021, when a total of 2,375 people participated in the programmatic conference in Nicaea, with the congress delegates from the province participating, due to the crown virus, from a digital platform.