SYRIZA has held dozens of “critical” meetings of its leadership bodies, but tomorrow’s meeting of the Central Committee will not only be critical but also decisive for its very existence as a party.Alexis Tsipras ’s ELAS has “sucked up” whatever remained of the poll numbers for the party that once governed, and the only question to be raised tomorrow concerns whether and how it will continue to appear on the political map—not after the elections, but…before.
The view of the leading “Famellos group” is that SYRIZA should not disband and, at the same time, should not run independently in the elections, since Mr. Tsipras firmly insists on his refusal to form electoral alliances with other parties.
In other words, the position that Socrates Famellos is expected to articulate in his proposal is that SYRIZA should not go into the elections in opposition to ELAS. This means that selected members of the party, whether current MPs or not, will join the new party’s electoral lists, but SYRIZA, as a party, will not be represented in Parliament. It also means that members or officials of one party will be MPs… for another party.
“The great challenges of our time and the needs of society cannot be addressed through entrenchment or choices of partisan isolation. They require transcendence, unity, and cooperation among progressive and democratic forces, and the building of a social and political alliance for a progressive political program with specific goals and specific solutions,” Mr. Famellos emphasized yesterday while speaking at an event on climate change.
It is not out of the question, however, that he might request more time to hold further discussions with Mr. Tsipras (regarding formal cooperation), but the officials aligned with Pavlos Polakis —Rena Dourou and Nikos Pappas— are demanding clear solutions and an end to the current paralysis.
Their position is that SYRIZA should, of course, participate in the elections and seek to form alliances with forces and figures in the political arena, such as Nikos Kotzias and Loukas Arsenis.
How the two groups will approach tomorrow’s Central Committee meeting will become clear today during the discussion at the Political Secretariat regarding the proposal, as that is where everyone will lay their cards on the table.
According to persistent reports, a large number of officials who favor joining forces with ELAS are set to leave immediately, stating that there is no point in their remaining in SYRIZA. Subsequently, according to the same reports, “approximately ten” SYRIZA MPs are expected to become independent.
In such a scenario, the party will be left with the current minority faction of Polakis, Dourou, and Pappas, which will then be able to make all decisions unimpeded.
Mr. Pappas already directly called on Mr. Famellos yesterday to resign from his position as president if he proposes suspending SYRIZA’s operations or not running in the elections.
The question regarding SYRIZA’s assets has not been answered by those advocating for a split, who limit themselves to “noting” that without a seat in Parliament (for the remaining party), there will be no state subsidy and thus no financial means for it to operate.
The “red flags” mainly concern the building on Koumoundourou Square and the party media outlets “Avgi” and “Sto Kokkino.”
It should be noted that Mr. Tsipras’s associates insist, for their part, that he has no involvement in what is happening in his former party. And that, on the contrary, “it wouldn’t hurt him” to participate in the elections, so as to prove that ELAS is not a continuation of SYRIZA.