Koumoundourou has released a video of current independent MPs who, months ago, called on other colleagues to hand their seats back to SYRIZA, arguing that they had all been elected on the party’s ticket in 2023.
The 12 independent MPs in question, led by former party leader Socrates Famellos, had been informed of the move last week. They left SYRIZA last July, lending their support, directly or indirectly, to Alexis Tsipras’s ELAS.
The ultimatum to do so expired at noon today, while …the following MPs were named and shamed: Socrates Famellos, Giannis Sarakiotis, Dionysis Kalamatianos, Kostas Barkas, Olga Gerovasili, Haris Mamoulakis, Miltos Zambaras, Andreas Panagiotopoulos, Kalliopi Vetta, Giorgos Gavrilos, Marina Kontotoli, Alexandros Meikopoulos, Popi Tsapanidou, Giorgos Psychogios.
In the six-minute video, the MPs say that the seat belongs to the party on whose ticket they were elected and is not anyone’s personal trophy.
Party officials have also publicly called on Mr Tsipras to pressure the independent MPs heading towards ELAS to hand their seats back to SYRIZA “now, and not just before elections are called”.
In addition, Koumoundourou is calling on Kostas Zachariadis to resign as head of the Athens municipal group “Open City”, to which he was appointed as a SYRIZA official, after officially joining ELAS yesterday.