Last year like this, Olga Gerovasili, a central figure in the impeachment motion against Stefanos Kasselakis, had said, before the internal party elections: “Sometimes splits are not bad”. After a few days, Stefanos Kasselakis was elected president and this year, before completing his term in leadership, the unprecedented thing happened in Greek political history: he was removed from the presidency with a motion of censure.
A decision that was expected after the way Stefanos Kasselakis moved throughout the previous period, but also after his particularly incendiary speech at noon on Saturday, which raised the spirits even more.
After what dramatically happened last weekend both inside and outside the Central Committee hall, there is not the same appreciation of the splits. After all, the conditions and data are different. SYRIZA cannot stand another split. Like last year, this year they are exorcising her, but now there are other facts.
SYRIZA is going to an extraordinary congress – the road map will be decided at the Political Secretariat and will be ratified by the Central Committee in two weeks – to be followed by the election of a leader.
Who will be the candidates?
And the question is who will nominate: Pavlos Polakis has already declared his availability, raising both the issue of quick procedures and the programmatic. Sokratis Famellos also insists on the need to have a programmatic discussion, whose name is also heard as a candidate.
It will be the Olga Gerovasili the person who will support the 87 who multiplied in K.E.? And yes and no, as it is still not clarified. But for many it would be a good solution as a transitional president for a period of time, capable of reorganizing SYRIZA and finding its footing again.
THE Nicholas Farandouris he declared himself ready to be a candidate and has a profile that many like, although with minimal party history and participation in political events, but a person who combines both technocratic and political elements.
There is also a discussion about the president of K.O. Nikos Pappa which he has to decide, although he would not say no to increasing his influence, if he will be a candidate for leader. He has nothing to lose, but instead to gain.
The question is what will the deposed Stefanos Kasselakis do who declared himself redeemed by the result of the motion of censure. At the end of his speech he said he will give the answers where he is accountable, in the world of SYRIZA.
What will Kasselakis do?
For Stefanos Kasselakis, who still hasn’t decided what to do, there are three paths: either he returns to the US or he claims leadership again, hoping for the party members (as opposed to what he said to the party bureaucracy and nomenclature) or he will form in the second year a new political body.
What Stefanos Kasselakis will do during this period is indifferent to the majority of the K.E. after what happened last Saturday. The concern is that SYRIZA does not enter a long process of introversion that will again produce toxicity, division and parapolitics.
Before he does anything and especially about whether he will be a candidate again, he will measure his strength, see which MPs have remained by his side and what he can achieve. However, his supporters are furious with Nikos Pappa, considering that he sold them out, while there is also anger with Alexis Tsipras, who they believe, without this being substantiated, that he was behind the move to oust Stefanos Kasselakis.
It is indicative of the fact that after the announcement of the result, if one excludes the brief statement of Stefanos Kasselakis who spoke of “hoods in the K.E., ignoring the weight and importance of the term which is charged and drenched in blood, the climate in meeting was more calm.
After all, it is common ground that the party should get out of introversion as quickly as possible and return to normalcy as quickly as possible.
The tight schedule
The goal is for SYRIZA to have a president by mid-November, and in fact before the debate on the budget in Parliament. The schedule will be tight, but the procedures cannot be done too quickly as many want. And this is because there are also elections in PaSoK where two rounds will be needed and therefore polls will be set up on October 6 and 13.
The path from now on will be difficult, but everyone is also avoiding a new split, which at this stage will not help, although perhaps the departure of some people will be redemptive and help in the return of members and executives who had left in the previous months.
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