SYRIZA: The crucial vote, the conference battle and the difficult day ahead –

In a spiral of daily discredit and political trivialization, SYRIZA has entered with the responsibility of all sides on the way to the most critical conference of recent years, which is scheduled for the three days of November 8-10. SYRIZA is called upon to fight first of all for survival. “The battle of battles” as many say about a process, supposedly the highest partisan, which is however strongly disputed by the former president of the party Stefanos Kasselakiswhile the current, contemporary and diverse majority based on the “87” adds fuel to the fire.

Coexistence in SYRIZA is impossible

The dominant question is what will happen at the conference. Will there be the final rupture and expected split? For tactical reasons, no one is talking about it, neither one nor the other side. But the climate is not just tense. It is so belligerent that it is considered impossible for the two camps to co-exist the day after either the congress or the presidential election.

This was also recorded last week, while the elections that started yesterday and are ending today for the nomination of delegates to 700 organizations across the territory confirm that we are now talking about two parties. What remains, simply, is the validation of the split that is getting closer and closer.

He wants the overthrow

Tonight’s showdown will be crucial for the future. From the correlations of the ballot box, it will be seen whether Mr. Kasselakis will be able to overturn his exclusion from the leadership elections at the congress.

The Central Committee decided and the Political Secretariat in the middle of last week ratified the four nominations, except St. Kasselakis, that is, of Socrates Famellou, Pavlos Polakis, Nikolas Faradouris and Apostolos Gletsosmoves that are constantly contested by the former president and his supporters.

What will Kasselakis do? He will be elected congressman, as expected, and attend the conference as normal. The interesting thing is that there were extreme voices from a section of the “87” to exclude him as a congressman, but this would show further phobia, greater than that displayed in the last period and which also leads to wrong actions that injure the image of the party who ruled Greece during a critical period.

The Kasselakis battle at the SYRIZA Conference

The presence of Stefanos Kasselakis at the conference in itself will give another color to the process, as he did not participate in the last meetings of the Central Committees and the bodies. There, moreover, he will fight the battle and depending on the number of delegates he influences, there will be corresponding reactions.

And the night shop in Gazi may not be playing music at the conference, but there will be post-music tension – and that’s a given based on today’s situation.

Despite efforts to lower the tone and give the impression that a normal political process will take place, what is foreshadowed, always according to the movements behind the scenes, will be literally “war”.

Mr. Kasselakis will ask to take the floor as a delegate. Can they not give him? Difficult. How will it move? On the line he has drawn: “I am a candidate and this will be decided by the congress.” That’s where the majority who have a different opinion will intervene. How will the Kasselaki side react? Everything is open, from the fierce reactions and disapprovals to the final move to withdraw from the conference amid complaints.

However, the climate of division since the day before yesterday morning became more evident mainly after the interview of Stefanos Kasselakis (ANT1) and what he said about the possibility of creating a new party. Although he said he would stay with SYRIZA, he indicated that if SYRIZA were to liquidate, “we should make a party more business-friendly”. The “87” stepped on it and “wove a scarf” with leaks: “Good luck to him on the path he has chosen and as for the new party he is preparing, it will certainly be incompatible with the Left, the progressive space and the interests of the great popular majority” they say

War atmosphere

As is clear, SYRIZA is moving into this critical week in the midst of a warlike atmosphere and even the process of electing delegates, which ends in the evening, was not straightforward, since executives close to St. Kasselakis complained that “by a decision of the current majority of the CEEC, the exclusion of not just individual delegates, but even entire OM and NE who dare to have and express a different opinion from the decisions of the Central Committee and the PG” is sought.

The complaint was signed by supporters of Mr. Kasselakis, such as Yannis Voulgarakish Hara Kafantario Thanos Moraitisand the deputies Nina Kasimati and Theodora Tzakri with a censure for the Legislation Commission.

The degeneration of SYRIZA collapsing online is expected to continue in the coming days and the final blow may be delivered at the conference – if there are any deviations as predicted – which may even be called into question in the coming hours if delegates are cut.

The conference of the “former”

In the midst of the dissolving situation in SYRIZA, those executives who left a year ago forming the New Left are holding their own political conference. Instead of a nightclub, the first conference of the New Left will take place at SEF on the four days of November 7-10. In essence, it is the answer to the SYRIZA conference, although the process had been launched months before, they broadcast from the New Left which took an essential step of organizational reconstruction. The aim of the conference, as its central officials say, is for the New Left to reintroduce itself to the citizens, sending a signal of renewal and restart. Denying at the same time as “non-existent rumours” the scenarios of reconnection with SYRIZA, both organically and at the level of parliamentary groups, in the event that Stefanos Kasselakis is definitively “exiled” from the party of Koumoundourou and leads his own party.

“I’m here, I’m not gone”

Alexis Tsipras is watching the developments in SYRIZA with concern, who after his speech yesterday at a conference in the Parliament on the strengthening of Democracy when asked by a journalist how he sees the situation said meaningfully: “Let’s go… let’s say something pleasant”. In fact, in the comment of another journalist “we feel that you should return”, he preferred to say: “I am here, I did not leave”. Of course, earlier in the room, when he spoke pointedly about Justice, focusing on the shipwreck with the immigrants in Pylos, the tragedy of Tempi and the wiretapping scandal, in the observation of Mrs. of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Despina Hatzivasileiou-Tsovilis that “we sensed that you are also the leader of the official opposition listening to your speech, he replied: “I throw this glass away from me”.