SYRIZA and Stefanos Kasselakis parted ways, but they still maintain open fronts with each other. The formula for conducting the extraordinary conference continues to be a central core of controversy. The former president of the party insists, as he told Alpha, that “this party has acted illegally”.
In the days since last Saturday, Koumoundourou had preferred silence, avoiding direct confrontation. On Thursday (11/14), SYRIZA sources responded collectively and with numbers to everything they are charged with for a “coup” and “exclusion of delegates“.
Attempting to fend off the claims of the opposing side, they pointed out that all this “paraphilology that is reproduced in the days after the Congress only serves the decision made a long time ago by a small group to leave SYRIZA by forming another party”. At the same time, the same circles claimed that the voting for the nominations “would not be affected by more than 2%” even if there had been no changes in the list of delegates after the decisions of the Legalization Committee.
In summary, Koumoundourou pointed out the following:
“Because four days after the Congress, the literature about a “coup” continues. Because this philology had started the day after the removal of confidence in the person of the former President of SYRIZA, by the deposed President himself, in accordance with the party’s statute. Because, apparently, this philology is now adopted as the “official” assessment of the Congress itself by a section of the media.
Because once again the annoying SYRIZA is in the crosshairs of unrepentant friends and opponents, we have to say and repeat the following:
The number of delegates
1. The total number of delegates elected by the elections to the Member Organizations was 4262. More than 43,000 members participated in the elections. 3072 delegates participated in the votes of the Congress and 2784 voted in favor of the recommendation of the Central Committee. Consequently, 65.3% of the delegates and 90.6% of those who participated voted in favor of the Central Committee’s recommendation. Note that the remaining 34.7% who did not participate are for the most part delegates who probably supported the ousted President, but certainly not all.
The process of approving delegates
2. Regarding the alleged delay in the announcement of the delegates. Never at any Conference were the names or exact number of delegates announced until – most of the time – the first day of the Conference, for the simple reason that the delegates must first be certified, objections checked, etc.
3. Regarding the “unacceptable” exclusions of delegates. In all Conferences to date, the final certification of the delegates is done by a special committee of the Central Organizing Committee of the Conference. The reason is that in some cases the rules for the nomination of delegates are not respected (such as the gender quota, the number of elected delegates in relation to the number of members or voters, etc.), or because there are objections from other members either for the persons or for the election process, etc. Similar procedures are foreseen in all democratic parties in Greece and internationally.
Indeed, this time more objections were made to specific Member Organizations and more delegates were cancelled, compared to previous Conferences. The reason is that the ousted President’s team attempted, on a nationwide scale, to “give birth” to delegates, in a desperate attempt to reverse a clean sweep against the majority or cause the cancellation of delegates and then talk of a “coup d’état”, as they did . The announcements of the ousted President, on the night of the elections, with Ceausescu-style “results” (eg “Pella 78-0”) are indicative of the mentality.
Those who are quick to discount the “cancellation of congresses equals coup d’état exclusion” equation will allow us a) to continue to preserve the only democratic way of organizing a Congress that exists by following the rules, and b) to point out that the corresponding democratic sensitivity was not shown in the particular complaints by members about the operation on the part of the former President to completely undemocratically distort the election of delegates in several Member Organizations.
Voting at the conference
4. Even so, the number of delegates canceled is so small compared to the numbers of delegates and the clear majority, that even if we assume that those in question were wrongly canceled, and furthermore that all of them would vote against the recommendation of the Central Committee, voting would not be affected by more than 2%. In other words, the Congress produced a clear, overwhelming majority, and a result that does not admit of the slightest doubt as to the true will of the majority.
If this upsets those who wished to force our party to retain a President or approve a nomination that the vast majority of members did not want, we are sorry. This is especially pointed out for those who emphasize that “parties are not owned by anyone, they are owned only by their members”.
The conference venue
5. Regarding the first day of the Conference. The venue chosen, apart from the fact that it would not accommodate the live presence of all the delegates, proved unsuitable indeed, and for other reasons, but no alternative was available unless the convention was postponed for weeks with a corresponding postponement of the election for nomination. new President.
And the hybrid format of the conference was chosen for financial reasons, just like last year in the announcement of the candidates for presidents in the Diarches. It must be emphasized, however, that neither another place nor another date was proposed by the former President, because all he was interested in was how the majority would charge any problem that would appear, as a “deliberate trick”.
It is also true that the world suffered greatly. The whole world, regardless of whether or not they supported the ousted president. The great majority, however, waited patiently until late to enter and receive the delegate card. While others were shouting, shouting, hitting and finally left by order of the former President because they “couldn’t get in”.
However, it is clear that even if the venue was more suitable, it was pre-decided to dissolve the Conference with a massive invasion of delegates and non-delegates, without any observance of the procedure, and if they did not succeed, to leave complaining, as they did. Why? Because they knew they had lost the Conference. The composure of the party and the great majority of the delegates avoided the worst.
Koumoundourou’s conclusion
In conclusion. It doesn’t take a great deal of political experience to realize that if the former President’s side had, not the majority, but even the slightest hope of being even close to a balance of correlations so that he could then complain about “exclusions of delegates”, etc., he would have participated in the Congress.
The paraphilology that is reproduced in the days after the Congress only serves the decision made a long time ago by a small group to leave SYRIZA by forming another party, and which, for this reason, long before the election procedures for the selection of congressmen even started, spoke of coup, hoodlums, junta, blockades, schemes, etc. And of course the Congress “resoundingly confirmed” the self-fulfilling prophecy…”
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