Socrates Famellos took up the…the initiative to confront his internal party critics, who disagree both with SYRIZA’s decision not to run in the elections in order to support Alexis Tsipras’s ELAS and with his choice to maintain the ambiguous image of a functioning party.
Thus, at the meeting of the SYRIZA parliamentary group that he convened on an emergency basis today, he announced that:
- He is removing Nikos Pappas (who belongs to the first “category”) as parliamentary spokesperson and appointing Theofilos Xanthopoulos and Kostas Barcas in his place.
- It accepted the request of press secretary Kostas Zachariadis to be relieved of his duties (editor’s note: he belongs to the second category) and appointed Christos Giannoulis to replace him.
In a post, Mr. Zachariadis thanked Mr. Famellos for … his dismissal, stating bluntly: “There are new developments for our party, as well as for the country’s political system. The founding of Alexis Tsipras’s party has brought about new realities that no one can ignore. It is reshaping our political landscape, but it may also play a decisive role in shifting the political balance in the country.”
Mr. Famellos defended the Central Committee’s recent approval of his proposal (i.e., that there be no “opposing slate” in the Hellenic Police).
He also launched an attack on Pavlos Polakis, whom he has expelled from the Parliamentary Group, hinting at his expulsion from SYRIZA as well:
“I will not allow a former member of the Parliamentary Group—who has undermined our operations with his public statements and was therefore expelled from the Parliamentary Group— to pose blackmail-like dilemmas and provoke a further crisis by calling on MPs and party officials to choose sides, when we have collectively decided on our position. We have paid dearly for similar mistakes in the past,” he said at the meeting.