In the letter he sent to the members of the Political Secretariat, Stefanos Kasselakis states that he does not intend to use the questionnaire for the conference but for the coming October and in fact criticizes the political secretariat because they did not hold a meeting on agriculture and education but for this issue.
Dear members of the PG:
You urgently requested the convening of the Political Secretariat, even though the Body met just a few days ago on matters of election of the coordinators of the Member Organizations and the Prefectural Committees and on other issues of the Conference.
As you know, I have already been in London since yesterday, where I met with expatriate Greeks and this afternoon I will speak at the London School of Economics, at an event entitled “The Modern Left for Progressive Governance” and until then, from early today, I am following program of dense meetings with investment and business bodies, with the National Cypriot Federation of the United Kingdom and with the Archbishop of Thyatira and Great Britain Mr. Nikitas.
Therefore, I am unable to attend today’s meeting of the Political Secretariat which you requested to be convened as an emergency on the occasion of the fact that, as President of SYRIZA-PS, I addressed to the members of the party – through isyriza – a questionnaire of a consultative nature, on a series of issues concerning from the image and symbols to the operation of our party.
The results of this questionnaire will not be made public. We are not a polling company. But it will be a useful tool for both the SYRIZA Organs and for me, in our decisions.
Since you are all experienced party officials, you know very well that the upcoming extraordinary Congress is not statutory. Therefore, a debate is opened, no statutory decisions are made.
We will decide on these at the regular Congress that will take place in the fall after the European elections, which will be statutory. You know this very well.
Indeed, the two Conferences, the political/programmatic and the statutory, should have preceded the election of the President. I was not in the organs when you decided to precede the election of the President at time dt.
So why did I put this questionnaire?
Precisely because these are issues that are already being discussed by our members and friends, and even strongly. We must show and prove in practice that we know what concerns them and that we, too, are willing to listen to them carefully and open a productive and democratic discussion about everything. This is an existential need of SYRIZA – PS.
The need, after all, for our members to contact us and express their opinions, is demonstrated by the enormous interest and the very large response that this particular questionnaire has in just two days (and the extremely useful comments and suggestions for the function of the party). The answers of the members will be collected, coded and at the appropriate time (in view of the statutory conference) we will discuss them together in the Organs.
I point out that I have no disagreement with the functioning of the PG and the Bodies in general, despite my deep dismay at the repeated leaks that are made even during meetings and which have thus unfortunately undermined the credibility of the Body. To be fair, there are leaks even in the KO Presidium, so maybe it’s a wider issue in the party than the statutory function.
I have proven that I spare no effort and energy when it comes to my participation in any party initiative. I only remind that in the last two weeks we have organized two absolutely successful and productive Development Conferences, I have visited many farmers’ blocks, with the farmers embracing my presence, I have participated in the very interesting and timely event on Education organized by K.O together with the party Department, I participated in our event in Brussels on the crime in Tempe and supported the parents of the victims, and of course I have attended several events of our Membership and Youth Organizations, in order to listen and talk to members and friends us.
Is it possible to be afraid to ask our members, especially after two electoral defeats that revealed a deep deficit of grounding with society? Where did they see ND winning with 2-3 times the votes of SYRIZA? Who brought our party from 32% to 18%? If you don’t ask the members under such circumstances, when do you ask them?
Let us all learn – and the President first – to finally listen.
How much longer do we ignore our members and society?
Why was it never requested to convene the Political Secretariat for the farmers and for the students who are on the streets, for the medicines that all citizens will pay for out of their own pockets with Adonis Georgiadis’s insensitive decisions, for the draft law of Mr. Floridis which turns our penal system back seventy years, for the accuracy campaign that has not yet started, for the housing campaign and a whole host of other problems that concern society, which the government of Mr. Mitsotakis blatantly ignores?
Political Secretariat for the opinion questionnaire? For the intra-party influence of everyone in a party that has proven to be non-governmental and must respond to the needs of society, which is suffering and sees no way out or hope.
The Conference scheduled to begin on Thursday will take place! I’ll be there. We will all be there!
Until then, our stress and anxiety must be to discuss the issues that really concern society and to find in this conference the solutions and answers it is looking for.
Stop chasing chimeras, feeding conspiracy scenarios that I will supposedly make I.X. party, because we are letting our people down. I.X. a party that listens to its members does not exist. I.X. it is the party that wants its members to applaud in defeat.
Personally, I will listen to the members, they will advise me, I will do what I promised them for an open members’ party. These members (and no “tradition”) did me the honor of electing me Leader of the Official Opposition with this exact request: to listen to them.
So I invite you to listen to them together.
companions,
Stefanos Kasselakis
President SYRIZA-PS
Stefanos Kasselakis is in direct conflict with his… party, shortly before his 4th Congress SYRIZA which starts on Thursday, plunging the party into a lasting crisis, from which it is doubtful if and how it will emerge.
And we are referring to the occasion, as it has long been clear from the report that Stefanos Kasselakis and his staff have made the decision to clash with the so-called party establishment, not excluding Alexis Tsipras himself.
Investing in the people who support the new leader and believing that if they survive this political battle, they will block the way to the return of Tsipras and have a chance to recover. “Strategy of “I finish or they finish me” from Kasselakis” was the title of the headline on the front page of the “Free Sunday Press” for the SYRIZA report and before a few hours passed the reality confirmed it.
The beginning was made by the usually mild and measured statements of Olga Gerovasili, who expressed her surprise at the Kasselakis questionnaire and requested the extraordinary convening of the Political Secretariat and the Central Committee before the start of the Congress.
“I was very surprised to read on the iSYRIZA website the initiative of the president, Stefanos Kasselakis, to ask the opinion of the party members on issues related to the structure, name, logo, as well as the political identity of SYRIZA-PS. Five days before the Congress, identity issues are selected and asked, in the form of a poll questionnaire, which constitute the conference decisions and statutory positions of our party. Key, critical and important issues are not raised in the public sphere, since they have not been raised either in the positions or in the public, and not even in the internal party dialogue of the party members. I would expect, therefore, from the president, before asking these identification questions about our party to our members on the electronic platform, to tell us exactly what he is proposing, that is, what is his own position on the above. The minimum I am obliged to do after all this is to immediately request the extraordinary convening of the leading organs of the party, i.e. the Political Secretariat and the Central Committee, before the convening of the Congress. That is, before this de facto developed into a Congress to dissolve the party that Alexis Tsipras brought to govern the country and which he handed over to his successor in the position of official opposition”.
Kasselakis and Christos Spirtzis are against the initiative, who speaking to ERT said that “many of these (he means those on the questionnaire) are expired issues. The president of SYRIZA is probably not informed” and noted that identity issues end at the Congress, challenging Stefanos Kasselakis to put his proposals to a vote.
“The Congress is the highest organ of the party. No process, no matter how serious the issues it introduces, can replace it. The statute of a party is also its constitution”, said Mrs. Notopoulou, also highlighting that Tsipras line, that is to drag Stefanos Kasselakis into a confrontation at the Congress and not to have a result through the votes in iSYRIZA which will come for ratification at the Conference.
The Kasselakis questionnaire is a replacement, according to Nikos Pappas, who leaked that the statute – which binds everyone – with the changes of 2022 provides for universal participation of members and that the questionnaire limits the party’s personality, is incomplete because it does not seek responsibilities starting at the top.
The Kasselakis side, however, characterizes these reactions as “reactions of the old SYRIZA that the world has condemned” and insists on the need for the changes proposed by the new president through the questionnaire.
The first response to SYRIZA executives came from Theodora Tzakri who spoke of “chieftains”. “We will not hesitate to innovate, to break down doctrines, to change ourselves, to overturn hierarchies, to pay the costs, to be worthy of the circumstances, because it has never been enough in history to simply change people. There is no more room left for procedural objections, nor can there be any room for the ambitions of leaders at a critical moment,” he said characteristically.
A little while later, with his post on social media, Stefanos Kasselakis insisted, inviting everyone to enter the questionnaire, in order to “strengthen the only alternative to the governmental dystopia and support my effort”.
“Since 2019, the progressive world has been shouting at us to ‘change everything'”, emphasizes Stefanos Kasselakis in his post-response, urging all SYRIZA members to fill out the questionnaire. “Your answers will help both me and the party organs in our decisions. We are not talking here about news polls but about a process of intra-party democracy,” he notes.
Critical three days
The three days leading up to the opening speech of the Conference by Stefanos Kasselakis on Thursday night at Tae Kwon Do in Palaio Faliro is now considered by all sides to be extremely critical for SYRIZA.
The Kasselakis side is said to be unwilling to back down in its bid to turn the 4th Congress into essentially a Congress that will bring the end of SYRIZA founded by Alexis Tsipras and the beginning of a new party.
The Tsipras side and the cadres who have remained in SYRIZA and support the former leader were taken by surprise and are challenging the new leader to an open battle, i.e. to votes on his proposals, so that he is disapproved and forced to leave.
Of course, there is always the third way, before the final rupture, that of flexibility and final compromise. It does not accumulate many chances, but it still exists, as executives from the “pasochogeneis” or from the new generation who have their own strategy (Dionysis Teboneras) on the one hand do not want to be identified with Stefanos Kasselakis, but on the other hand do not want to trapped in the Tsipras group as well.
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