(UPD)
In a televised Press conference, Panagiotis Lafazanis head of the newly formed ultra leftist political group ‘Popular Unity’ said the group’s alternative plan provided for an exit from the Eurozone. Lafazanis underlined that his party’s plan was to form a wide ‘anti-memorandum bloc’ that would ‘sweep aside the memoranda’. He accused the SYRIZA government of hastily resigning and calling elections in the middle of August, ‘a move that was not for a good cause’. Lafazanis estimated the new party would play a central role in the Greek political arena outlining its main platform which included a debt write-off and abolishing the memoranda. He said that the party aimed at drawing votes from the electorate that supported the ‘No’ vote in the referendum in July.
According to the latest information, another 4 MPs have reportedly joined the new party bringing the total to 29. Former Alternate Minister of Finance Nadia Valavani is among the new additions.
The imminent and overdue split within the leftist SYRIZA party was formally realized on Friday, after 25 dissident SYRIZA MPs signed a joint letter to the Parliament president announcing they are forming a separate Parliamentary group.
The anti-memorandum and far-left party will be called ‘Popular Unity’ and will attempt to receive a mandate by the Greek President to try to form a government, given that the leader of their former party, PM Alexis Tsipras, announced his resignation on Thursday and his intention to declare snap elections.
Numerically, if judged a political party, ‘Popular Unity’ would be the third largest political formation in parliament.
The one-time SYRIZA ‘rebels’ have essentially been calling their former party’s leadership ‘traitors’ after Tsipras signed and delivered a third memorandum with harsh austerity measures attached this month.
Panagiotis Lafazanis, who leads the movement, is expected to hold a press conference in parliament.
Meanwhile, Dimitris Stratoulis, another prominent former SYRIZA MP and minister who is now part of the new party, said the inclusion of Greek Parliament President Zoe Konstantopoulou is an “open prospect”. It is not clear yet what former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis will do.
One issue that remains is whether the bloc of MPs can be considered a legal political party without having registered at a first instance court, followed by a customary “rubber-stamping” by the high court, and most importantly, having actually participated in an election.
