Stefanos Kasselakis gave his first interview after the withdrawal of confidence from the Central Committee of SYRIZA and just a few hours before the extraordinary meeting on Saturday (12/10), where the answer to his resignation will be decided.
“The conference will decide whether I am president of SYRIZA or not,” he told ANT1 and Nikos Hatzinikolaou. “Candidates are those approved by the Congress. I will be a candidate, we will go to a presidential election no matter what. The statute is clear. The Congress is the highest body, it can and should express itself, in my opinion, for what has been done” he said about the questioning of his candidacy.
“Let’s say it’s true that I’m a former president. Who is president today? I remain both de facto and de jure president. The base of SYRIZA chose me to change everything and Alexis Tsipras kept a neutral stance. We are now in a difficult political leadership vacuum for the party. The statutes are clear that when there is a vote of no confidence, we go to an extraordinary conference. Of course, I remain president, because it is not understood that a party does not have management and administrative leadership,” he said.
Asked why he packed up the day after the motion of impeachment against him, he replied: “When I woke up the day after the meeting I found out that my office had been locked. And because I was being accused of being Trumpian, I felt I had to do everything I could to tone it down. I discreetly removed, revoked the power of attorney that the CFO had from me. Because I no longer made the decisions […] I saw on my phone that they had locked the e-mail. So, I realized that there was another ownership concept in the party.”
For Alexis Tsipras
“I refuse to believe that a former prime minister deals with such issues. If Alexis Tsipras wishes to return to the front line of politics, the most honest thing would be for him to run against me as the SYRIZA presidential candidate.”
Mr. Kasselakis noted that it was “a tactical mistake that he did not go to the polls last February.” “Alexis Tsipras must remain active,” Stefanos Kasselakis said at another point of his interview.
“I’m too left-wing”
“There is a plan to exclude me from the election of the leader and a scenario of postponement and liquidation of the party, these are not democratic perceptions” said Mr. Kasselakis.
“While I was at the campfires in the summer, some comrades were meeting via zoom about how to block the way to the conference. I’m very left-wing and I’m proud of it. A leftist is one who is pissed off at injustice
As Stefanos Kasselakis said, he will not go to Saturday’s Central Committee.
“We will go to a conference and elect a president”
“I didn’t talk about hooded people, I said that among the honorable members of the Central Committee, some wore hoods. The Central Committee has the right to hold a secret ballot, but this particular one was semi-secret, since some voted by phone.”
He appeared confident that “we will go to a Congress and to the election of a president because at the end of the day the base will speak. There is a plan that wants to exclude me and there will be a postponement of the proceedings and a rescue committee. I will not allow this scenario, I will not allow the scenario of postponement and liquidation of the party”.
He acknowledged that the Central Committee can disqualify his candidacy and added that “the Congress can annul the decision of the Central Committee.”
On the occasion of the procedural problems and his referral to the Ethics Committee, he said that in the future “the solution will be provided by the base of the party with a new statute” and added “I have submitted my proposal, which is participative direct democracy. We must build our party to build the country, deep cuts must be made. I made my suggestions, but unfortunately they have been blocked. Anyone who thinks I will leave the country is seriously mistaken.”
“I will stay with SYRIZA whoever is elected”
He said of the lawsuit he sent: “The leak of personal data today can happen to me, tomorrow it can happen to anyone. An out of court is a formal protest. One must take a clear stand. There are constitutional rights of equality. I am not going to trouble the party legally. I turn against the natural person.”
“They do not disagree with me ideologically and there is no counter-proposal from their side. It is done because of an obsession with my face, the new against the old party mechanisms” he said of his opponents. “No one has the right to prevent the grassroots from voting. End the debate about the Kasselakis party. The base will provide the solutions. I am not going to leave SYRIZA and I will not form a new party.”
Regarding whether his opponents, such as Olga Gerovasilis and Christos Spirtzis, will have a place in the party, he said: “Whoever the base decides will participate in SYRIZA. I will stay with SYRIZA whoever is elected.”
He told him about the pothen esche: “The pothen esche was for the day of the assumption of the presidency before the wedding. Tyler’s pothen esches will have no shadows.”
On the unified Centre-Left scenario, he said such pressures come from business and media agendas and added that the grassroots of each party must legitimize its leader and direct the party to cooperate or not.
Referring to his personal life and the promotion of his marriage, he said: “It is our right to spend some nice moments with our friends. No, I’m not apologizing.”
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