Three senior SYRIZA figures warn of party disintegration

Three leading members of main opposition SYRIZA have said the party is facing a “very serious crisis” and have called for an immediate meeting of the party’s political secretariat.

“The situation is past alarming; the party’s disintegrating,” said Effie Achtsioglou, Nasos Iliopoulos and Alexis Haritsis in a joint statement, following the announcement on Monday evening by party leader Stefanos Kasselakis that he was expelling Nikos Filis, Panos Skourletis and Dimitris Vitsas, all former ministers, for acting as “TV sponsors” of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“We have an obligation – to the hundreds of thousands of citizens who support us – to stop this downward spiral,” the trio said, in the latest internal rebuke of Kasselakis.

They added that SYRIZA had “a long tradition of internal democracy with rules and respect for procedures. Even in extremely difficult conditions, the search for the synthesis of different opinions was a given. Unity presupposes collectivity, the adherence to procedures, and principles.”

In the recent leadership race, Achtsioglou, tipped as favorite to take the leadership position until Kasselakis’ surprise entry in the contest, came second in the run-off, taking 44% of the vote.

Earlier, Theodoros Dritsas, a former SYRIZA minister and MP, said Kasselakis “should place himself out of the party” as he has shown himself to be “a factor in the further destabilization and break up” of it.

The former shipping minister said he cannot see another way out of the impasse the party finds itself in apart from “Kasselakis himself realizing the harm he has already done with his choices and his personal plans and making the brave decision to put himself out of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance and to found a new party.”