I have the mandate from the base to proceed with the radical changes that SYRIZA needs

“What is happening after the drama with the dead fish, this huge ecological disaster, is almost the tombstone of Magnesia”, stressed the president of SYRIZA-PS, Stefanos Kasselakis in an interview he gave to TRT, stressing the need “this change immediately” “and for the state and society to stand by the side of Magnesia”.

Kasselakis throws down the gauntlet to Tsipras

Mr. Kasselakis accused the government that any intervention “is now being done late”. “We have to finally prevent situations and not always react after the fact and give a compensation too late, which is insufficient and so on. In addition, no compensations have been given for the fires and floods since last year, and many people are waiting”, he noted, while referring to his last visit to the Regional Governor, he said that he had “shown him the file with the complete series of projects that had to be had been done”, which is “costed at 500 million euros”.

“It’s a mess over here. A mess of responsibilities, overlapping. And we end up seeing this region here, Volos and Magnesia seeing its tourism collapse – up to 90% down are the bookings at the moment”, added the president of SYRIZA-PS, while expressing the belief that “the people now understand that there is oligarchy over here and that there must be accountability.”

Commenting on the Prime Minister’s visit to Thessaly, he wondered “why he didn’t visit Volos. Is it possible for him to be in the Region, to go and announce some general measures-aspirins and not come here to see the problem up close, to listen to the residents, the professionals? Freelancers are really struggling, here in Volos”, he said, while pointing out that, unlike him, Mr Mitsotakis is “afraid of shots”. “To those who mock my presence in the field, I believe that what I do is the most important part of politics: it is to be close to the citizens. Politics is for citizens. It is not – with all due respect – just for channel studios, nor is it just for the walls of parliament. It is for the presence among the citizens”, he characteristically said.

Regarding SYRIZA-PS internals, he noted: “What I know is that the Central Committee that we have this weekend has been authorized by itself, by the Central Committee itself a few weeks ago, to proceed with a proposal of statutory changes to the upcoming Congress, which she herself has authorized, again, and organized. So, I’m not going to deviate from the purpose that we have, which is to build a state-of-the-art party that gives the voice and the dominant power to the members of the party.”

Regarding the possibility of intra-party ballots being set up again, he reiterated that “everyone within the institutions can by statute proceed with what he considers to be a probationer”, while reminding that his term of office is three years. “I believe that I have the mandate from the grassroots to move forward with the radical changes that the party needs, the changes that we had announced that we would implement as a framework at the February Congress. And obviously when there is change, there is friction. It is absolutely legitimate”, he emphasized, while noting that the country needs “an experienced opposition with a clear progressive vision” which he opposed to the “cloudy center” of PASOK.

“So we need to know what a progressive party means and what the modern Left means. And what is there to say about something else, which may be an offshoot of the anti-Semitic PASOK and New Democracy. This does not express us. It’s not what the place needs, mainly. You see that with this austere neoliberal policy, inequalities have escaped,” he said.

Finally, when asked about the part he wears about his personal life and whether he has changed his tactics regarding its promotion, he said that it was a “stereotype” that had been blamed on him, that is, that he “claimed such a promotion”. “All this is because I am breaking stereotypes that exist about society, about the Left, which have been cultivated for decades. In other words, the modern Left wants all Greeks to be able to be wealthy. That’s not the point. He just wants social justice. And that a child who is born in a neighborhood of lower economic income can try and succeed in his life”, underlined St. Kasselakis.