Dimitris Papanotas is out of the SYRIZA European ballot – 2024-04-22 18:26:08

Dimitris Papanotas was excluded from the SYRIZA European ballot, by the decision of the party’s President Stefanos Kasselakis.

His place on the European ballot is taken by Konstantinos Sidiropoulos, PhD in Biology and member of the Association of People with Neuromuscular Diseases, while he is the son of former minister Katerina Papakosta.

In his post, Mr. Kasselakis states that he respects the decisions of the members and friends of SYRIZA, who for the first time chose their MEP candidates.

However, he noted, there are cases where the president should intervene so as not to shift the blame elsewhere, particularly to women, who suffer multiple discriminations, inequalities and gender-based violence.

“It is with regret that I am forced to exclude Dimitris Papanotas from the Euroballot. I know that he issued a corrective statement, but the issue he referred to is highly sensitive and cannot be discussed. Especially for the party that has human rights and equality as its frontline”, emphasizes the President of SYRIZA.

I fully respect the decisions of the members and friends of SYRIZA who – for the first time, with my commitment – chose our MEP candidates themselves. But there are cases when the President must intervene in order not to “burden” responsibilities elsewhere by washing his hands.

— Stefanos Kasselakis (@skasselakis) April 18, 2024

Papanota’s first reaction

“It is a great victory for New Democracy against SYRIZA. I am truly sorry for their way of thinking. If you don’t have the guts to face the attacks I will receive, then I will resign. They told me, no, Dimitris, stay, we will support you. I want to remind Mr. Kasselakis that I was the first to support him from the first video he uploaded,” said Dimitris Papanotas speaking to Alpha.

The statements they caused

It is recalled that in his earlier statements that were made public again, Dimitris Papanotas had mentioned that “I don’t see a problem for women in Greece and in general in the EU, unless they want to have one. That is, if she gets a satrap, who abuses her, and she does not speak and sits and tolerates it, it is her problem.”

Of course, he claims that the statements are a product of editing: “This is cutting, it is not a statement from the beginning to the end”

Naturally, what Mr. Papanotas said caused reactions within SYRIZA and beyond. Sofia Bekatorou, a candidate with the party in the European elections, invited to comment on the above statements, said that “the party will stand as it should, making the right move”.

Mrs. Bekatorou wanted to remind the well-known journalist that “238,476 women are physically or sexually abused by their partner/husband during the year. That is, 653 women every day” and he added that “we are not imagining things, the time has come when we must make sure that solutions are taken”.

According to the pioneer of metoo in Greece, “we cannot say that we bring people with new ideas and the people who come not only have outdated but also their personal opinions”.

“I can’t decide it myself, but in a group there must be people who can stand with knowledge, with the feeling for the common good and not to ostrich”, concluded the Olympic champion.

Tsambazi: “The statement about the satrap has not been tampered with”

On the same wavelength and the positioning of the journalist Dora Tsambazi, also a candidate with SYRIZA in the European elections as emerged from the results of Sunday’s primaries.

From the studio of the Kontra television station, the party adviser asserted that she is not going to “wash away any behavior and attitude that I consider not only does not express me, but brings me a very great dissatisfaction. It doesn’t express me at all, it worries me and it doesn’t express all the women in Greece, who are fighting against the patriarchy as a whole to break down all these stereotypes of the patriarchy which are all still deeply rooted”.

Referring to Dimitris Papanotas by name, the wife of the deceased Alexandros Nicolaidis stated that “I watched his statement very carefully as a journalist. The part about the man and the satrap hasn’t been interjected or anything, it’s a continuous thought. Nevertheless, if he himself considers that this has not been interpreted correctly, I think he can request all the material from Mrs. Fay Skordas to present it to the institutions of SYRIZA, the Ethics Committee and the institutions and they will decide.”

He also emphasized that “Mr. Papanotas, like me, has been selected through this new process of qualifications, so the people decided to be there. I think the Ethics Committee should look into it. If I thought that my statements had been falsified, I would ask for the entire video to be filed where it should be to be okay. I read Dimitris Papanotas’s post in an earlier post of mine. A month ago is not old, it is fresh, it is current, old is many years ago when many of us have the right to change our opinion. I hope this has been faked and I’m waiting for the real video.”