What does the dragon generation of SYRIZA do when the fairy tale ceases to have a dragon? Everyone fights it as they know and can. THE Alexis Tsipras repositions himself politically by sending a “divorce” petition via Facebook to his SYRIZA Stefanou Kasselakis and in his New Left Euclid Tsakalotou. His former supporter Nikos Pappas, having lost favor long ago, is spreading his nets in the party until the next round of internal party elections, waiting for luck to smile on him. And all of them together carry the cross of their government tenure, the negative memories of which have not yet faded for the largest part of the electorate.
Movie with supporting roles only
SYRIZA without Alexis Tsipras is like a movie without a protagonist, only with supporting roles. Stefanos Kasselakis is photogenic but who was captivated by his dramatic dialogue with Olga Gerovasili on the floor of the conference and did I forget about the elections? Only some blabbermouths and his followers who filled the stands in the indoor Tae Kwon Do stadium and loudly expressed their disdain for the party establishment, which is “going to handcuff” the president of their hearts.
This world of the conference has little to do with the old SYRIZA of 3%, maybe even with the SYRIZA of 2012-2015. However, it has an absolute relationship with the governing SYRIZA which, in order to conquer and maintain power, incorporated everything it could from where he could without principles and rules, most notably the alliance with the Independent Greeks. Those who had objections then kept them for their groups and closed party gatherings. Publicly, they fervently defended the incongruous coexistence of the radical Left and the far Right, advertising how insane the Panos Kammenos. This “marriage” might not have been possible, if the most populist part of PaSoK had not already moved to SYRIZA.
Populism and the matchmaker
Populism was the platform for the cooperation of these forces and the matchmaker, his comrades reveal in retrospect, was Pappas. He approached, they say, PaSoK officials, such as Christos Spirtzis, who went to SYRIZA together with their electoral dowry, and facilitated the cooperation with ANEL by putting out the internal fires. Then Tsipras was eager to take power and Pappas with his extreme opportunism encouraged the fire without thinking about the consequences. After all, he was his confidante, the closest person to him.
Those who knew Pappa well and voluntarily did not participate in the festival were worried about the superpowers he had. He was considered a mess and ineffective. The TV license fiasco that led to his 13-0 conviction by the Special Court proved them right, although there were early signs when he attempted in 2015 to scuttle negotiations with the institutions and make a mess of them. He retired on his own with the silent relief of the ministers in charge, probably also of the prime minister, who after the fiasco with the television licenses removed him from the Maximos Palace.
Building a strong team
The ties were not severed, because the field in which Pappas excels is intra-party networking. This became his great asset since 2019 when SYRIZA lost the elections until today. Being in the opposition, before top officials and Tsipras himself realized what had happened to them, Pappas began to assemble the presidential team. The “Member Movement” (Flambouraris, Gerobasili, Famous, Douro, Polakis, Zachariadis, et al.) was the most numerous and strongest trend in SYRIZA. At the party’s third congress in 2022, held six years after the second in 2016, it received 70%, compared to roughly 30% for “Umbrella” (Tsakalotos, Friend, Skourletiset al.), of the internal party opposition.
After the ascendancy of Kasselakis, the “Umbrella” together with executives who were among the “presidential” ones, such as Efi Ahtsioglou and Alexis Haritsis, left SYRIZA, forming the New Left. The “Members’ Movement”, however, in its majority remained, and this enabled Pappas to offer the 8% he received in the first round of internal party elections, together with his networking in the organizations and members, to the apparent winner. The supporter of Tsipras became the kingmaker of Kasselakis. A pyrrhic victory. The dismantling of SYRIZA that began in 2015 after the referendum and the signing of the third memorandum seems impossible to stop, and the new president with the questionnaire to change the name, logo and face of the party has given it new momentum.
But he agreed, he did something else
Kasselakis is new to the party, his ignorance of the inner workings is justified. The others, however, who invited Pappa to the secret meeting, which took place last Saturday at the house of Alekos Flambouraris, with Alexis Tsipras, Olga Gerovasilis and Michalis Kalogirou, why were they then resurrected by his attitude? They called him because he has power. Pappas there agreed that they should finish with Kasselakis and brought her to their conference supporting Kasselakis.
Others had also intervened. On Thursday, two hours before the conference, Tsipras, with the post that few knew he would make, and they did not include Pappas, criticized not only the current president and those who left the party. He also referred to those who “disagree in the background, but are silently waiting for the electoral failure to come so that they can blame it on him. Regardless of what this will mean for the faction and the country.” The inner circle knew immediately that it was pointing to Papa, apparently he did too.
Autonomy and ambitions
Tsipras proposed immediate elections so that the president could reaffirm the confidence of the members. Pappas, like Pavlos Polakis and Sokratis Famellos, the entourage of the former president, in other words, put a brake on the elections. With an all-out leader’s speech, it was written with the anxiety of the majority, as he said, of the delegates and members of the party not to “consume the 50 of the 100 days remaining until the European elections on our issues” and to invest them all in the battle against the ND. Well, others don’t care about the faction and the country, not him. And in an interview after the conference he “revealed” that they did not always agree on everything with Tsipras.
In the mess that SYRIZA is in, who won and who lost from the conference is of secondary importance. Tsipras’s party no longer exists and it is doubtful whether he even needs its remnant in the next phase he is planning. Gerovasili came forward as the key leader of the old SYRIZA. Pappas set himself apart from everyone, emphasized his personal role and positioned himself with ambition towards future developments. Kasselakis grabbed the way out that was offered to him until the European elections, but he is walking on hot coals since his allies are also his internal opponents. SYRIZA, a mutated party, groans under the wheel of History. And the dragonborn, a byproduct of crisis, seem only to recognize themselves through crises, even if they consume them.
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