It is now a condition for anyone who wants to be a candidate for president of SYRIZA to submit their credentials together with the 30 signatures of members of the Central Committee who will support their candidacy.
This was decided yesterday, Saturday (21.09.2024) in the Central Committee of SYRIZA with 87 votes against 84. Naturally, the approval of this proposal, which for the sake of history was tabled by Christos Spirtzis, brought great turmoil to the official opposition party, as a result of which they left from the meeting about 50 members of the KE shouting slogans in favor of Stefanos Kasselakis, as they considered that the new condition directly concerns the former president of SYRIZA.
For quite some time, tension prevailed with the executives who support the former leader of the official opposition shouting slogans against the “nomenklatura” outside the room, calling on the ousted president to change everything in SYRIZA.
The supporters of Stefanos Kasselakis left the meeting when they realized what the upvoting of this proposal meant.
The various interpretations of pothen esches
Until late at night, however, there were various interpretations of what the upvoting of this proposal means. That is, if it is a condition or it is simply up to the discretion of the candidate to present his background.
According to Christos Spirtzis, who wrote and submitted the proposal, the submission of the petition must be accompanied by the 30 signatures of the executives who support each candidate.
More specifically, the former SYRIZA minister, submitting the motion, characterized the urgent need “to prove in action and not in words that neither our party nor our executives have anything to hide, after the traumatic image of the reports and insinuations about “black” coffers and partner targeting leaks’.
He even added that: “in this context, the candidate presidents of the party will submit with their candidacy the documents they have submitted to the competent authorities, so that they can be published on the website of the SYRIZA PS, before their announcement by the Congress”.
So based on the motion filed by Christos Spirtzis, the filing of the petition is a prerequisite.
For her part, SYRIZA’s parliamentary representative Nina Kasimati – who belongs to the former president’s group – emphasized that “the attempt to manipulate the election of the president, but also of the new bodies, continued in today’s (as well as yesterday’s) meeting of the EC by some. The Congress, which is the highest body, will take the final decisions on everything and the Greek society is already seeing the desperate attempt of some to hold on to their chairs and hold hostage the president who will be elected by the society again against the will of the bureaucracy ».
Pausanias Papageorgiou: Pothen esches will be an accompanying document
For his part, however, the press representative of SYRIZA, Pausanias Papageorgiou, stated that the nomination form has not been submitted as a condition of candidacy, but it was voted to accompany the nomination submission also by the nomination form. “If there isn’t, we’ll see then,” he said. And he added: “The letter of intent will be an accompanying document. It will not be checked. Nominations are submitted prior to the conference, so details will be included with the nomination at the conference. All the documents that will accompany the nomination will be validated by the conference”.
As can be seen, if things are not clear about a candidate, it is possible that he will not pass the conference and therefore his candidacy will not proceed.
This development obviously has its importance, as even in an ambiguous way the issue of where you belong to and therefore the criteria for those interested in being a candidate for the position of president was introduced. And of course also for Stefanos Kasselakis, who has said that he has been testifying since the beginning of the summer about his whereabouts.
Pavlos Polakis, who was asked about this issue, emphasized that in the proposal he made, he said that the only condition for a presidential candidate to step down is 30 signatures from members of the central committee and MEPs. All the rest I think contributes to the attempt of some to play the victim and that’s why I don’t want it. In any case, how it relates to me has been known to the public for many years.
The votes
The proposal of the Political Secretariat for a conference on November 1-3 and elections on November 24 and December 1 was passed by the KE meeting. This proposal received 112 votes, while Stefanos Kasselakis for speeding up the procedures received 62. The proposal of Pavlos Polakis, which was similar to that of the former president of SYRIZA, received 9 votes and there were 2 abstentions.
Those who have registered as members until October 11th will have the right to participate in the delegate election process.
The proposal of Nikos Pappas that the conference be statutory did not pass. The proposal was voted against with a quota of 60-40.
On the contrary, the proposal of Thanasis Theocharopoulos, which concerned the condemnation of all offensive and toxic reports against the personality of executives and members of the party and indeed for collective decisions of the bodies, was voted for.
There was also a lot of noise about the proposal of Dimitris Hatzisokratis to separate the election of the president and that of the Central Committee, against the suggestion of the Political Secretariat. The proposal in question was withdrawn and if its rapporteur comes back, then it will be discussed at the next Central Committee (October 5).
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