Welcome to the weekly round-up of news by Kathimerini English Edition. Main opposition party SYRIZA seemed to be heading for a second leadership election, less than six months from the previous one, but it was averted at the last minute by a vote at the party’s convention.
Against the backdrop of the party’s convention this weekend, leading members of the party and close collaborators of former prime minister and party leader Alexis Tsipras staged a revolt this week after current leader Stefanos Kasselakis distributed a questionnaire polling members on several critical issues ranging from the party’s political identity, name, and logo in the run-up to the event.
Kasselakis, who was confronted by several critical SYRIZA MPs and members (which included former staunch allies), met with the party’s Political Secretariat on Tuesday and, citing his fresh popular mandate from the leadership election, called for assurances that he would not face new leadership challenges irrespective of the party’s performance in the upcoming European elections, alternatively challenging them to find a candidate to run against him in a new leadership election.
In response to these tumultuous meetings, Tsipras, who had largely kept away from the fracas over the last few months since he announced that he would be stepping down following the double national elections last summer, released a statement just before the convention calling for a vote of confidence in the leadership of Kasselakis.
“To lead the party into the forthcoming election battle, it must be clear that he [Kasselakis] commands the majority’s confidence at this critical juncture,” noted the former prime minister.
On the first day of the conference, Kasselakis picked up the gauntlet and openly challenged his detractors. “Find me an opponent. Find me an opponent and let’s go,” he said emphatically. However, as battlelines are being drawn within the party, the speech was also criticized by leading MP and former Athens mayoral candidate Costas Zachariadis as divisive.
When Olga Gerovasili, a former minister and close associate of Tsipras, officially announced her intention to stand against Kasselakis, she was met with a chorus of boos from those in attendance. “The role of the president is to unite. To synthesize, not to divide”, she said over the angry reaction of the crowd.
In the end, a motion to cancel the election by several influential SYRIZA members, including leader of the party’s parliamentary group Sokratis Famellos and former minister Nikos Pappas, was adopted by the convention. “We’re not heading for elections”, said Kasselakis. Just months after the acrimonious divorce between SYRIZA and the members of the New Left political group, unity within the party still seems a distant goal.
Spotlight
- Greece’s farmers, who have been mobilizing for weeks to protest rising production and fuel costs, staged a massive demonstration in front of the Hellenic Parliament on Tuesday. The Hellenic Police estimates that at least 8,000 farmers and 130 tractors joined the demonstration. The government reiterated that it is open to further negotiations but emphasized that there is very little fiscal space to make further concessions to Greece’s agricultural sector. “We have nothing more to give,” said the prime minister ahead of the rally. The prime minister’s office also announced that Mitsotakis will be meeting with farmers from flood-stricken Thessaly on March 11.
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