“SYRIZA-PS must be the opposition,” SYRIZA-PS President Socrates Famellos said in an interview with Attica TV, stressing that “70% of households live at or below the poverty line” and “society is looking for an opposition.” “The PASOK cannot respond to this need. We have the role of a dynamic opposition. Not the consensual opposition,” he added.

“The government has degraded functions of the Constitution and the rule of law in our country. Against this government there is no consensus opposition, there is dynamic opposition. In such a dynamic opposition there can be progressive partnerships. For these partnerships, we have put forward an open invitation. We have no partisan egoism because the interests of society come first”, he continued, noting that “Mr. Androulakis, before the end of the budget debate, was in a hurry to welcome the government’s initiative on the banks, describing it as a victory for PASOK”. “In the end, what Mitsotakis brought was crumbs. It was a caress for the banks,” he commented.

Regarding the election of a new PM, he said: “As SYRIZA-PS, we are particularly wary of discussing the issue of the President of the Republic. We have not allowed any name to emerge in the public sphere. With this stance, we also safeguard the prestige of the institution. It is much more important to start a discussion on the characteristics by which the parties will choose the candidate.” He described it as “very important that a party nominee is not selected.”

Regarding the meetings he had with Nikos Kotzias and Petros Kokkalis, he noted that they were concerned about the issue of cooperation between the progressive sector. “They are two people I consider my comrades, who have worked together a lot. We are in different formations, but that does not mean that we are not interested in progressive cooperation and the progressive perspective,”
he said.

On the New Left, he said he had disagreed with their departure at the time, “based on the pluralism that SYRIZA-PS needed.” “I respect their choice. But that doesn’t mean I agree. They chose to be in a different party and to form it with a recent congress. But I don’t consider them to be out of the progressive space. So there are possibilities for cooperation, both party, movement and social. When such a proposal is addressed to PASOK, it will not leave out the New Left. Just as it does not leave out the KKE or the Liberty Workers’ Party, he noted.

“We invite to SYRIZA-PS all those who believe that SYRIZA-PS should be the pillar of the progressive opposition and allied formations. And this proposal is open, with no conditions and no trade-offs. It is made public. It is for those who have been demobilized and disappointed,” he said.

On banks, he said that “there must be a strengthening and utilization of the role of the state in the National Bank.” “SYRIZA-PS proposes that the State should play its role in the current share capital and also consider increasing its participation in the shareholding composition.”

As for the media of SYRIZA-PS, he spoke of “a disastrous period” and “an inhuman attitude towards workers”, “with many evasions by the previously deposed president”.

“My priority and my first commitment were to do everything we can to ensure that SYRIZA-PS has “Avgi” and “Kokkino”. The plan that we have to work out by January 15 at the latest – and we are also talking to the employees about it – is a proposal for a normal reopening within a new framework. We are not discussing any proposal to divest or sell the party media. We want Avgi and Kokkino to belong to the members of SYRIZA-PS,” he stressed.

“Returning to politics for us means more democracy, truly active citizens. We are making an effort to trust politics again. There are people next to us who may have five degrees and not have a salary that can let them live in our country and go abroad. This is the situation we want to reverse. Politics is not only participation, it is also a struggle. Nothing changes if we do not fight,” said S. Famellos.