SYRIZA fractured in three parts
Party leader Kasselakis pitted against former mentor Polakis, and influential group of 87
Main opposition SYRIZA is heading to its crucial central committee meeting on September 7 and 8 fragmented into three parts comprising its leader Stefanos Kasselakis, the group of 87, and his former mentor Pavlos Polakis, who was ousted from the party’s parliamentary group in July.
After calling for a change of the party’s leadership during Thursday’s stormy meeting of the Political Secretariat, Polakis doubled down in a social media post on Friday.
“It is clear what I said and what I will do,” wrote the Hania MP on Facebook, indicating that his decision to challenge the leadership is irreversible.
However, for Kasselakis, the challenge by Polakis, who had helped him to victory in the party elections last year in September, appears to be the least of his problems.
Indeed, Polakis’ insurrection has been overshadowed by the group of 87, with eight of its members walking out of the political secretariat meet in protest at the way he runs the party.
In a statement he put out after the political secretariat meeting, Kasselakis appears to have reserved his ire for the group of 87, whom he apparently wants to push out of the party.
This was also apparent in the fierce attack he launched in a video he posted on Friday.
“There is an organized plan: the daily humiliation of SYRIZA until the (party) congress, so that no one stays,” he said.
He even called on the 87 to reveal their intentions now, speaking of schemes that appear only through intrigue.
The fact is that the 87 politically and mentally are effectively out of the party. Some in the opposition say the scene is strongly reminiscent of last fall with the two successive splits in the party.
The internal opposition responded through sources to what Kasselakis accused them of after the political secretariat, stating that “we leave the insults of Stefanos Kasselakis to the judgment of the members and friends of SYRIZA, the whole progressive world of the country and the Greek people.”
“Besides, we are unable to follow the confusion which he is in, since once again he raised the issue of leadership alone, through evening posts, while a few hours earlier, at the meeting of the political secretariat, when everything was said, he stated that he won’t pick up the gauntlet,” the sources said.
