SYRIZA leader Kasselakis falls in no-confidence motion
SYRIZA’s central committee approved a motion of no confidence in its leader Stefanos Kasselakis Sunday, deepening the turmoil that has plagued the main opposition party since a resounding electoral defeat last year.
The 286 members that took part in the vote – another eight abstained – voted 163-120 for the motion, with another three casting blank or invalid votes. This easily cleared the threshold of 148 votes, a majority of all central committee members and not just of those who voted, required for the motion to pass.
A first taste of Monday’s developments was seen Saturday, when Kasselakis and his supporters lost a vote on whether the vote would be open, as they wanted, or secret. In the end, 210 members voted in three ballot boxes and 76 who did not attend voted by phone, thus doing so openly.
As a sign of the ill will prevailing at the meeting, Kasselakis’ supporters, and he himself, after the result was announced, accused proponents of the secret vote of wanting to wear hoods, a not-so-subtle reference to the hooded collaborators in World War II who pointed out members of the resistance to the Germans.
Immediately after the result was announced, shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday, Kasselakis declared himself “liberated” and accused a “bureaucracy, a party nomenclatura” of acting against the wishes of the party members who voted for him as their leader just less than a year ago.
“We [the central committee members] and the MPs were elected by the party base, too,” retorted Sokratis Famellos, the former leader of the party’s parliamentary group. Kasselakis is not an MP.
An extraordinary congress must follow in the next three months where leadership candidates will present themselves. Kasselakis did not say whether he will be a candidate again, only that he will announce his intentions to “the people.”
Outspoken populist MP Pavlos Polakis, a former Kasselakis supporter who turned against him, said he will take part in the contest.
New parliamentary group leader Nikos Pappas will represent the main opposition party at the Thessaloniki International Fair next weekend.
