SYRIZA-PS secretary Nikos Pappas warned, speaking to the party’s Central Committee, that from now on any attack on SYRIZA would be met with a strong response, and that those who made similar choices would bear responsibility and pay the corresponding price.
He addressed the issue of MPs who had become independents, taking a swipe at Alexis Tsipras as well: “Some are treating their parliamentary seats as personal property, depriving SYRIZA of strength and rights. For example, in a few days a bill on servicers is due to be brought forward, and we will need 15 MPs to request a roll-call vote. Who is depriving us of this parliamentary opportunity to let the Greek people know how their representatives in other parties and the independent MPs voted on this crucial issue? Those who have left should give up their seats. If Alexis Tsipras accepts them, he will bear half the responsibility for this disgraceful practice. It would be a practical demonstration of disrespect for our party”.
He reviewed SYRIZA’s activity since it began its period of rebuilding and collective leadership, noting: “Some are wondering whether SYRIZA has a voice and a role. Who else put forward proposals on housing and the reinstatement of the 13th pension, who raised the prospect of returning the Public Power Corporation to public control, and who called for the repeal of the Pierrakakis law rather than for legal certainty over private universities? This is the SYRIZA that entered the fray. We have fought hard to be here today. We did all this to strengthen SYRIZA and the Left. I hope everyone has understood that the previous period is over”.
Nikos Pappas referred to yesterday’s meeting of SYRIZA’s Political Secretariat, at which Pavlos Polakis called for the party leader to be elected by the membership before the elections, following a congress in January. He raised the issue with the Central Committee, saying: “If the Central Committee decides to proceed, we will need to set up a central organising committee for the congress so that we can hold a congress in January. We will also need to change our plans. We must not leave an issue like this unresolved”.
He criticised Kyriakos Mitsotakis and also PASOK and ELAS over fiscal matters. “Yesterday the prime minister said Greece has fiscal headroom. Who was he fooling for the past six months, when he denied it? We call on PASOK and Alexis Tsipras’s party to revise their economic programmes. We will not tailor our economic programme to Mr Mitsotakis’s communications needs”.
He said SYRIZA’s organisational rebuilding should be completed by the end of the year, particularly in the Athens region, where most of its disaffected voters are concentrated. He also addressed relations with other centre-left parties: “After the European elections, we proposed putting together a strong electoral ticket. PASOK rejected it. Alexis Tsipras chose to leave SYRIZA and, in doing so, reject it. I heard Alexis say the other day that he respects SYRIZA. That marks a shift from his aggressive statement that ‘SYRIZA has completed its historic cycle’. But it is a smaller shift than his policy changes on the 13th pension and private universities, which we have seen accepted. Or on fiscal headroom, where we saw him adjust his position to match what the government was saying.” He went on to say that “the proposal to New Left remains open; meanwhile, we are continuing our contacts with the Ecologists Greens. We consider Nikos Kotzias’s initiative a positive one”.
Rena Dourou: SYRIZA is here; collective leadership is a deeply left-wing choice
Speaking to the party’s Central Committee, SYRIZA parliamentary group leader Rena Dourou defended the June decision to adopt collective leadership, stressing that it “is a deeply left-wing choice”.
She said she was convinced SYRIZA would be in the next parliament, adding: “It is not enough for Kyriakos Mitsotakis to leave; the right’s policies must be defeated.”
She also said: “SYRIZA is here, despite the predictions of those who were quick to write us off and the efforts of those who sought to write it off without SYRIZA itself having a say. Our political value is not measured by the seats we occupy, but by our struggles and our contribution to society. SYRIZA was created to change people’s lives”.
She alluded to the previous leadership: “We put an end to a period of political ambiguity that diminished our parliamentary presence and wounded our party. Individuals bear responsibility, but so do we, because we tolerated attitudes alien to the Left. We allowed the ‘I’ to displace the ‘we’. When did party loyalty become tied to identifying with the leader of the day? We do not need more saviours; we need comrades. We got used to attributing victories to one leader and defeats to everyone else. We want a party with leadership, not an owner and a messiah; a party with members who make decisions, not followers who wait for instructions. Collectivity was not, and is not, a choice for the defeated or a refuge for the weak. It is the political self-confidence of a party that does not depend for its existence on the ambitions or even the petty ambitions of a few”.
P. Polakis: Elect a leader to get SYRIZA back on its feet
Speaking to SYRIZA-PS’s Central Committee, Pavlos Polakis defended his position that the party should hold a regular congress in January and elect its leader by a vote of the membership.
He stressed that someone had to take the key decisions, clarifying that he was not opposed to collective leadership in general, but that a group needed a leader.
He also said: “This is a question of survival. When we had Famellos saying SYRIZA should vote for another party, we were at 1.2% in the polls. Now, with collective leadership, the average polling figure is 1.44%. We adopted collective leadership to overturn Famellos’s ridiculous proposal, and we did so. But the party’s support is not growing now”.
He concluded: “I do not think this is working. Tsipras and Androulakis cannot build majority movements because they do not have programmes that reflect popular demands and needs. There is potential here for this to work. But we need a congress in January, a congress to announce candidacies. Then, within a week, we should hold elections for the party leader and the Central Committee. That could reverse the party’s course. Otherwise, this cannot be turned around”.