Greek opposition: The background of how we got to the break between Tsipras and Polakis

On February 19, MP Pavlos Polakis tried, in essence, to blackmail SYRIZA and Alexis Tsipras by threatening that if Michalis Hairetakis was not included in the ballots then he would withdraw his candidacy.

The party’s reaction at the time was immediate, noting that “no one puts conditions on the party”.

Greek main opposition MP Polakis faces disciplinary charges for a second (and final?) time

A few hours later, the SYRIZA MP took a step back as with a new post he said that he was referring to the party’s instruments.

This time, party HQ sent the message to the Cretan MP that it would not tolerate personal politics and blackmail.

Spirits calmed down for a few days, but no one could predict what would happen in the future. The glass was cracked for good. After a few days of calm, however, Pavlos Polakis struck again. This time for another issue.

And yesterday’s post seems to have been the final straw.

How we got to the rift

After the Polakis post about the deep state in which he simultaneously targeted journalists and judges, party HQ sent a very clear message to the SYRIZA MP.

More specifically, Pavlos Polakis, in his post, talks about the “deep state”, adding that “If we don’t get rid of them, NEXT TIME WILL NOT BE DIFFERENT !!”, referring to the enxt time the party takes power.

In fact, it also sets parameters:

“-Reinstatement of all the provisions of the Pappas Law that the New Democracy government repealed. No more PETSAs Lists, get the money back!! [referring to state backing for media during the Covid crisis]
-Voluntary retirement for judges over 60, second school for judges with matriculation of 500 judges per year for the first 4 years, consolidation of preliminary investigation with main investigation for cases of embezzlement of public money, as well as a maximum postponement of one month at each level of adjudication for these cases.
-Replacement of Independent Public Revenue Authority-AADE by an independent authority, DISMISSAL OF PITSILIS [head of AADE] and restoration of the collection of taxes by the Ministry of Finance and the locl tax bureaus.
– UNDER PUBLIC CONTROL at least one of the 4 systemic Banks, with the abolition of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund and transfer of its shares to the Ministry of Finance.

Dumped by SYRIZA

Polakis’ personal politics, which are in fact outside the party line, the blackmails with the Haiertakis candidacy and finally the posting for journalists and judges, led to the final – unexpectedly – break between Tsipras and Polakis.

With its announcement, SYRIZA proceeded with a new distancing of Pavlos Polakis after his announcement, threatening to exclude him from the ballots.

“SYRIZA has a program and policy that have been approved by its congress. It also has principles of operation that are characterized by democracy, collectivity and provide for the defense and not the undermining of its policy by its members, and much more so the leadership staff” party sources stated in response to Pavlos Polakis’ out-of-line post.

The same sources even note that the main opposition party “has a program and policy that have been approved by its congress”.

Besides, as it became known, by the decision of president Alexis Tsipras, the MP of Chania was removed from the position of Transparency department head, with Yannis Ragousis taking his place.

The decisions on the future of Pavlos Polakis by the party will be made next Tuesday, February 28, when the Executive office of the party will meet in an expanded composition.

There, as stated in the SYRIZA announcement, Alexis Tsipras will request the referral of Pavlos Polakis to the Ethics Committee regarding his attitude of systematic violation of the party’s rules of collectivity and democratic functioning.

Intervention of Justice

The suspension of Polakis, in addition to the turmoil it caused in SYRIZA, also led to the ex officio intervention of the Judiciary with the aim of investigating serious offenses such as inciting citizens to commit crimes and violence against judicial officials.

The prosecutor’s investigation also concerns what is written in the posts about journalists and other actors of public life.

The order for the investigation was given by the head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Antonis Eleftherianos, who assigned the conduct of the preliminary examination to the head of the criminal prosecution, first-trial prosecutor Angeliki Triantafillou, for at least two offences, that of inciting citizens to commit crimes and violence against judicial officials.