The leader of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, tried to open up to KKE focusing on the party’s voters which is seen as a clear strategy of supporting its own candidate, Rena Dourou in Attica region and Gabriel Sakellaridis in Athens Municipality. Mr Tsipras, speaking yesterday in Patras chose to focus on his party’s support towards Costas Peletidis, the candidate supported by Greek Communist Party for Patras Municipality.

This choice is certainly not coincidental. SYRIZA consistently seeks cooperation with the Greek Communist Party even at government level, while KKE has clarified that in the second round its voters have two choices: Wherever there is a candidate of the Greek Communist Party, they will support him and whenever there is a candidate supported by Golden Dawn, they will fight against him by supporting his opponent, regardless of his party – even if Golden Dawn’s opponent is supported by New Democracy.

However, the Greek Communist Party and Mr Peletidis himself did not seem to be moved by SYRIZA’s opening up and insisted on rejecting any cooperation with SYRIZA.

As Mr. Peletidis stated “KKE does not bargain. We consistently fight against the austerity policies and the governments that implement these policies, the EU and its business interests. SYRIZA is a force of integration and its President himself gives his credentials to big business, and promises of loyalty to EU and NATO,”.