Early polls and congress on the agenda for SYRIZA
SYRIZA’s political secretariat met on Tuesday to begin preparations for an emergency party congress next month at which the differences within the party over the prospective third bailout are due to be settled.
Members of the party body decided to begin naming the members of two committees this week that will draw up the agenda for the September congress. Their meeting came as former Energy Minister Panayiotis Lafazanis, who leads SYRIZA’s radical Left Platform, renewed his attack on the new agreement being lined up by the government and its creditors.
“I know it will continue to destroy our country and hurt our people,” he said of the bailout. “We will not vote for the government to implement a new memorandum,” added Lafazanis before sending a message to fellow SYRIZA MPs.
“All the deputies in our parliamentary group will have to consider their stance, weighing up their responsibilities and the pledges they have made to the Greek people,” he said.
Government officials are increasingly talking about the possibility of snap elections in the fall. Government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili suggested on Tuesday that a ballot may not be far away. “Elections are a possibility but that does not mean that we should be focusing right now on when they might happen,” she told Skai TV.
