Yesterday, the Central Committee of SYRIZA Progressive Alliance delivered a second blow to former party leader Stefanos Kasselakis. Following his impeachment, the committee voted by roll call—140 in favor and 12 against—to officially exclude him from the race for the party’s new leadership.

In a warlike atmosphere, with tensions, nervousness and counter-arguments, and in a process that lasted more than nine hours, the senior governing body of SYRIZA PS put the brakes on the deposed party President for the second time, depriving him of the opportunity to declare himself a candidate on the evening of October 24, when the deadline for filing nominations for the internal party elections expires.

See protothema.gr’s hour-long live update here on everything that happened at SYRIZA’s epochal CC

Yesterday’s result, however, did not come about in a vacuum, but as the conclusion of a “war”week between the Kasselakis side and the new majority of Koumoundourou, culminating in the sending of a letter of resignation by the deposed party president to the members of the Political Secretariat and the Central Committee of SYRIZA’s PC. Although Kasselakis rushed to retract his out-of-court statement a few hours before yesterday’s meeting, however, “it was the straw that broke the camel’s back”, a leading member of the opposition party told protothema.gr, vividly capturing the internal party atmosphere.

The latter did not take long to show, as it was not long before the situation outside the hotel room where SYRIZA’s steering body, as members of the Central Committee and supporters of Stefanos Kasselakis stood in the corridors, without participating in the proceedings of the meeting in order not to ensure the necessary quorum.

When this was ensured by the arrival of party officials from the province, Yiannis Mantzouranis signaled the start of the meeting, while members of the Kasselakis side denounced the proceedings, led by the secretary of the CO, Theodora Tzakri, who denounced the “diversion”. In fact, Ms Tzakri was the only one of the “Kasselistas”, who entered the chamber to take her place from the podium, initially refusing to be accredited so as not to be counted in the body. She had earlier made a statement in which the SYRIZA PS CO Secretary stressed that “the secretary and the “87”, constantly postponing the start of business by inviting members to come in, refusing to come in and legitimizing the diversion. What is next? Exclude by decree the participation of Kasselakis in the elections.”

Watch video: “Without us, it wouldn’t be you,” Kasselakis supporters shouted after the JC

“If Comrade Tzakri wants to take the floor, she should take a card and be accredited,” said the Vice President of the Parliament, Olga Gerovassili, who spoke of a “minimal act of dignity” regarding the proposal to exclude Mr. Kasselakis from the procedure. “We are at this point after specific behaviors, positions on political issues, but also issues of ethics and style, which were raised by the responsibility of the former president… We have not taken offensive actions, but defensive actions all this time… The party has shown all these months very great tolerance and patience towards the former president” said Mrs. Gerovassili, concluding that “our actions are a reaction to action. We say a ‘Enough is enough!'”.

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Countermeasurement

For “zero margin of endurance”, but also “disparaging attitudes” towards the party organs, several executives reportedly spoke in their statements, while the tone for the exclusion of Stefanos Kasselakis from the election race was set by Yiannis Mouzalas, to be followed, in the same direction, by Thanasis Theocharopoulos and Yiannis Boulekos. At the same time, the MP for Thessaloniki, Katerina Notopoulou, as a member of the Decision Committee, requested that the deposed President of SYRIZA PS be mentioned by name in the political decision of the Central Committee. The same proposal was subsequently advocated by Mr. Mouzalas, resulting in the internal party landscape crystallizing even more after last night.

Besides, members of the party body close to Stefanos Kasselakis chose not to participate at all in the formation of the political decision, but to abstain, in a move that impressed several of the more moderate members of the body, given that the attempt to formulate correlations is “an inherent element of the Left’s dialectic,” they noted.

Meaningful

At the same time, the absolute attitude of the Central Committee of SYRIZA PS towards its deposed Presidentwas not an easy task even for the majority, given the absence from the meeting of leading members, such as, Rena Dourou, but members of the party apparatus, such as Panos Rigas and Nikos Skorinis had chosen to abstain, while members of the majority who were present also received massive arrows from Theodora Tzakri. “So are these the people who will set the course of history? In this case, we have to express our admiration for the fortitude of persons – otherwise mild-mannered – like Rania, mild-mannered like Mariliza, who, like the smiling Nikos Pappas, asked for an explicit statement on the withdrawal of the outcry from Stefanos Kasselakis! Which is what happened”, said Mrs. Tzakri.

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Catalysts
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The role of catalyst, however, was played by the “Polakis team”, as SYRIZA’s Presidential candidate Paulos Polakis may have remained in Chania yesterday, but members of the Central Committee who are close to him came to the meeting, resulting in the formation of a quorum. For their part, the six members of the “Polakis group”, viz: Vassilis Sbokos, George Panagiotopoulos, Christoforos Vernardakis, Markos Hadjisavvas, Dimitris Parthenis and Michalis Yapitzis stated that “we strongly oppose both the emerging plans for the liquidation of the party (either the Kasselakis side which contributes to a small party that will defend a part of rights only, or the majority of 87 and other fellow travellers, which contributes to a small party that follows other political plans), we are working for the unity and strengthening of SYRIZA”, concluding that “we do not legitimize with our participation and abstain from voting on amendments that we consider extreme”.

The next day

Following this, in the decisive vote that followed, only 12 members of the body voted against, with the result being, according to the majority, 140 in favour of excluding Mr. Kasselakis from the SYRIZA PS succession race, causing sharp reactions from the “Kasselistas” in the corridors and the surrounding area of the hotel where the Central Committee was meeting. In the face of the tense atmosphere, de-escalation moves are expected to be attempted by the party majority from now on, despite the fact that it was observed thatsthe reverberations from yesterday’s political result reached the fringes of the Southwest. “Adonis Georgiades for Kasselakis. When you don’t want a SYRIZA component of the corruption, what is the support of Georgiades and the toughest journalists for Mitsotakis in the period 2012-2023?” asked meaningfully members of the majority of SYRIZA PS, commenting even on the possibility that Kasselakis might challenge yesterday’s decision that “it’s their turn now to do the nomenklatura.”

Final clash at the Congress

“Date at the Congress” was the message emitted by the environment of Kasselakis, with the deposed president of SYRIZA PS commenting on social networks that “Our voice is the Congress. I’m Here”. However, according to those close to Mr. Kasselakis, yesterday’s decision to exclude him was taken by 138 votes, or 47% of the body. As pointed out, the Central Committee is a body elected in 2022 and which includes “50 appointees”, cadres in this case added by the Progressive Alliance, while Stephenos Kasselakis in 2023 and from a body of 150,000 voters. In this direction, the final intra-party clash is expected to take place on November 8, when the SYRIZA PS Congress is scheduled, if there are no second thoughts as to its timing, until further notice.

Civil war with heavy language on social media after the decision of the CE to exclude Kasselakis

The events with the exclusion of Stefanos Kasselakis from the SYRIZA elections and the tense scene outsidethe party’s Central Committee meeting set social media on fire.

The hashtag “#SYRIZA_coup” becameone of the first trends on X, with thousands of tweets within an hour. Comments were made both for and against the decision, often at very high levels.

One of the most typical posts is that of lyricist Nikos Moraitis, who takes aim – among other things – at Alexis Tsipras.