Former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras is expected to announce his party’s “shadow cabinet” today, as a 10-day deadline set by SYRIZA dissenters for party leader Sokratis Famellos to clarify the party’s stance on support for Tsipras’s Greek Left Alliance, ELAS, expires.

The new structure is expected to be announced from the party’s central Amalias Avenue offices and will include a task force for each policy area. Its aim is to respond directly to government ministers, project the party’s readiness for office and set out some of its main policy positions in the final stretch before the election campaign.

The pool of figures being considered includes former government officials and senior civil servants from the SYRIZA administration, people linked to the Alexis Tsipras Institute, signatories of the party’s founding declaration, and participants in local presentations of “Ithaca” with a strong technocratic profile.

The composition of the shadow cabinet is also designed to put pressure on PASOK, Greece’s socialist party, as it is expected to include figures with roots in the green political camp. People who recently left SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance to join ELAS are also expected gradually to take on roles in the new organisational structure.

Focus on the economy

Attention inside and outside ELAS is turning mainly to the economy. Although Tsipras’s party includes two former ministers, Giorgos Chouliarakis and Dimitris Liakos, it has so far struggled to give convincing answers in the public taxation debate. That has exposed weaknesses among key party figures and may lead to changes in the communications team, which will be asked to contain the fallout from the escalating crisis inside SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance.

The 10-day deadline set by the party’s minority faction expires today. The group has called on Famellos to clarify the roadmap for implementing the recent decision of SYRIZA’s Central Committee, which called for support for ELAS in the next national election by avoiding an independent SYRIZA slate.

The stance of several party officials has already caused tension. Christos Giannoulis, the party’s new press secretary, said that “only Alexis Tsipras can provide this answer. Whatever it may be. Not interpretations, not leaks, not third parties. Alexis Tsipras himself.” His comment came as the minority camp appeared ready to ask the former prime minister to state publicly what he believes should happen to SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, a position also suggested by Pavlos Polakis in his latest public intervention.

Former minister Nikos Pappas told Athens 9,84FM on Monday that “the governing bodies must be convened. By any means necessary. Whether the secretary convenes them or in the manner provided for in the party’s bylaws. There is no obstacle.” He added that “more and more people are recognising that the party’s strategy needs a timeline, clarification, updating and step-by-step implementation.”

Signatures and a new meeting

With the deadline for the party leadership expiring, minority figures have begun collecting signatures for a new meeting of the Central Committee, with July 5 and July 11 being discussed as possible dates.

They appear unwilling to leave the issue of support for ELAS unresolved amid what they describe as “people’s protests”, arguing that further delay would accelerate the party’s dissolution. They are also seeking answers about the future of the political organisation and its assets.

The majority secured by the Famellos camp at the party’s most recent Central Committee meeting is also being challenged by minority figures. Tryfonas Alexiadis has publicly questioned the process, saying that although some referred to a “broad” majority in favour of the decisions, no head count was carried out when the minority requested one.

“Not even a head count was taken of those of us who participated via Zoom. It is unthinkable that, at such a critical meeting, we would request a list of participants and have it withheld. These are not democratic procedures,” he said.