Veteran leftist, ex-deputy PM leaves SYRIZA

Yannis Dragasakis, a deputy prime minister in the left-led 2015-19 government, has left main opposition SYRIZA.

Dragasakis’ departure from the party he served for decades from various posts was not a surprise, since he had resigned from its central committee in December 2023. But it underscores the unease of many veteran and newer cadres with the party’s ideological trajectory under new leader Stefanos Kasselakis. And Dragasakis had not alerted anyone that he was about to take this decisive step.

“I wouldn’t like to remain trapped, out of inertia, in a party that will be totally different from the SYRIZA I have served since its founding,” Dragasakis explained in a post on his website. “Remaining in a party where the notions of ‘democracy’ and ‘Left,’ and the party’s history itself, are undermined and the only acceptable rule is the leader’s inchoate and often changing will, is very difficult,” he added.

Dragasakis zeroed in his criticism on the new leader, saying that Kasselakis, a political neophyte unknown before last year’s national elections, took over a leftist party, albeit with problems, and has created more problems while shedding the party’s leftist ideology.

“Let everyone respond to this duty (to create a big leftist party) as they see fit,” he said. While he seemed to intend this as a sign that he did not coordinate his move with someone else, some of his more suspicious former comrades, and many on social media, interpreted this as a coded signal for others to bolt from the party.

In its response, SYRIZA implied that Dragasakis was working for the interests of banks and made mention of the “plunder of public property” in regard to a bank (Attica Bank), which was eventually privatized. Dragasakis was presented as having been disturbed at SYRIZA’s criticism of the privatization.

“The Left is a way of life and is expressed with actions and not with cliches and content-free big words,” SYRIZA’s announcement said.

SYRIZA official Kostas Zachariadis, who does not have the best relations with the leadership, commented on this last part by saying that, while he disagrees with Dragasakis’ decision, “the disdain shown to comrades when they part ways is alien to my principles and values.” MP and former minister Pavlos Polakis, notorious for explosive comments against friend and foe alike, said that “this is a black day for the Bank of Greece.”

A member of the Greek Communist Party (KKE) until 1991, Dragasakis, a UK-trained economists, came to be identified with its moderate wing. A candidate for general secretary of KKE, he lost by four votes to hardliner Aleka Papariga. He left the party soon afterwards.