Polakis plunges SYRIZA into turmoil

In his first public comments since the removal of the controversial Pavlos Polakis from his position as shadow minister for transparency over a questionable social media post, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has said it was his decision.

A meeting of the leftist opposition party’s executive bureau was scheduled to convene on Tuesday to decide on a further response to Polakis’ post.

In the explosive media post, Polakis, much derided in and outside the party as a loose cannon, deviated from the party’s programs and also attacked judges, journalists and the head of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue in colorful and threatening terms.

Tsipras said it was his responsibly as president to evaluate actions that damage his party.

“SYRIZA has rules and procedures. [Polakis] was censured for having posted some programmatic positions that differ from the collectively elaborated positions on how we will deal with problems with the functioning of institutions,” Tsipras said, speaking at a health conference in Thessaloniki.

“SYRIZA will not govern the country to either overthrow [institutions] nor to take revenge. It will come to power to build,” he said.

Polakis has already been struck from the party’s ballot for the next general election and was stripped of his title as shadow minister for transparency following Saturday’s post. He was widely expected to be ousted from the party, even though he represents the crucial district of Hania in Crete.

For his part, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said SYRIZA must now “sleep on the bed it has made,” referring to the incidents that have been happening in SYRIZA in the last few days.

Sources said the main issue for the government is not the removal or not of Polakis from SYRIZA but the mentality of “populism,” which they say “is pervasive in the opposition party.”

Mitsotakis said as much in his comments on Tuesday.

“Let them sort out their internal affairs, let them reflect on who are the ones who elevated ‘Polakism’ to the party’s central line. And they must let us do our job, let us continue to talk about the future, avoid toxicity, and look at the real problems of society with respect and understanding, and I ask all our cadres to do this,” he concluded.