A high-profile and mostly expected “divorce” between brash Parliament president Zoe Konstantopoulou and Alexis Tsipras’ SYRIZA party was finalized on Monday, with the former the latest cadre to bolt what radical critics now term as the “leftist alibi” for the third memorandum.
Konstantopoulou said she’ll stand in the next elections as an independent but in cooperation with far-leftist Panagiotis Lafazanis’ newly formed Popular Unity party, which seeks to coalescence the radical leftist opposition to the bailouts offered by international creditors.
In typical combative Konstantopoulou style, highlights from the three-hour-long long press conference held at the Athens Journalists Union’s building in downtown Athens included:
— Charges that mainstream media is in direct contact with Tsipras in an attempt to politically destroy her
— The now defunct Tsipras government and SYRIZA are again requesting a popular mandate in order to violate it
— SYRIZA and democracy were abused
She also issued an open invitation to a handful of aging leftist icons to join her campaign, while indirectly hinting that she would welcome Yanis Varoufakis’ participation.
“I will be in a partnership, as an independent, that cooperates with the Popular Unity party,” was her opening statement.
