SYRIZA: Euclid Tsakalotos’ first step of breaking with the party

It was expected by many outside and inside the Epochi newspaper event in Trianon, on Monday night. Its title alone did not prepare for anything: “The renewing and radical Left facing the challenges of the times”.

However, the momentum of a crucial Central Committee meeting that is coming for SYRIZA as well as the whole whirlwind inside the party created an environment of intense interest for the evening and also for what the speakers would say, especially Euclid Tsakalotos.

And that’s how it happened. In the crowded Trianon theater, with people outside in the street and with a nucleus basically consisting of the Umbrella faction, the former Minister of Finance took the first step of breaking with the party.

No more pride

“As you know, I ran for president and at the end, in my speech, I said that whether I lose or win, I want to bring back pride to the left. It is extremely difficult to have pride in this party anymore,” he concluded his speech with a clear message to a round of applause.

Earlier he spoke harshly but in terms of politics, he also took pot shots at former party head Tsipras for the lack of credibility that has never been repaired, he described the absence of political discussion with the new leadership group, he deconstructed the term Progressive Faction, he spoke of a toxic climate that he has never encountered before .

In the audience, a large part of historical divs of the resurgent Left were present. Many former ministers or former parliamentarians, small and medium-ranked cadres who were involved in the adventure of the first SYRIZA government and who were now in groups discussing the new terms of confrontation, which, as everything seems, will find them outside the party walls and which the upcoming congress may be already too far away

Voutsis, Skourletis, Lamprou, Poulakis, Kavadias, Athanasiou, Claudianos, Bistis, Stathakis were there. Member of Parliament Sia Anagnostopoulou had spoken earlier. And she admitted her own “mea culpa” for voting for the constitutional changes that required the election of a president from the grassroots – and that brought Kasselakis to the helm of the party. She reiterated that she will not agree with the deletion of members from the party, but also clarified that she will fight within the party walls, making extensive positive reference to the Prespa Agreement –  for which she had been a rapporteur in the Parliament.

“Patriotic” and “governing” Left

She conjured the term “patriotic left” (with an obvious barb at the new President of SYRIZA-PS) but also the term “governing left”, refounding the term “left majority trend” in her speech.

Tsakalotos had also picked up on the issue earlier with a criticism of governmentalism and leadership and apparently it is a part of the platform of the opposition voices within SYRIZA – which we  will see in the Central Committee meeting on Saturday.

From Great Britain, using zoom, Oxford professor Antonis Tzanakopoulos also gave a tone of a fait accompli during his speech and this is important since despite the fact that he does not belong to the Umbrella trend he expresses a tough opinion on the 6 plus 6 group (Ahtsioglou ) that made it stand out in their recent gathering.

This last faction in question was not at the Trianon theater. At least, its leadership core, since other allied party members attended. Professor Kostis Papaioannou and the lawyer Vassilis Papastergiou were also on the panel – inside and outside the party, basically non-members to be precise, but also other cadres that follow the Ahtsioglou faction.

The first saying that if what was voted for was unspeakable, then obviously what was spoken was problematic. As an educator, he said that  young children were shocked in the last year by two events: by the Tempi train disaster and by the atrocity on the Piraeus ship with the murder of a passenger.

Neither a new French style socialist union, nor a Democratic Party ala USA, nor a red sun as proposed by former minister Spirtzis will do, Papastergiou said.

It remains to be seen how the final rupture will take place, how it will be absorbed (?) by SYRIZA, and who will be left behind, or cast aside.