SYRIZA: Caught in a maelstrom in the middle of the night

The last mass exodus from SYRIZA was that of the Left Platform in the distant summer of 2015 and it had as its cause the imposition of the third memorandum.

Most of party cadres and parliamentarians then, later played a leading role in the formation of three main formations: LAE, MeRA25 and Plefsis Eleftherias.

“Black Monday”

The “black” Monday of October 23rd for SYRIZA had no similarities with the distant 2015. However, it officially opens a twist that mathematically leads to a rupture, even of the historical part of the party.

Starting early on Monday war drums could be heard. The departure of Stelios Kouloglou from the Eurogroup of the party with barbs against Stefanos Kasselakis, had a continuation of the traditional shots from both sides of the party membership both on television and on social networks.

However, there were already hints from comments by Dora Avgeri, who is the official voice of the party, but also by the leak against Dimitris Vitsas, who essentially also revealed the processes of a new party formulation while speaking on a television panel.

Something else weighed further. A text circulated by the Umbrella forces was extremely destructive for Kasselakis.

Outside the party

And then came the tweet of the President of SYRIZA from the USA and his intention to exclude from the party three members with special weight for the human geography of the area: Panos Skourletis, Nikos Filis, Dimitris Vitsas.

All three former ministers, and two of them former secretaries of the Central Committee (Skourletis and Vitsas), one and for many years the director of Avgi newspaper (Filis). These are cadres with clout. And also with a leading role in the  Umbrella faction. Skourletis and Filis are members of the informal troika of the “old guard” – together with Nikos Voutsis, who is older than both of them.

Now comes the hard part. First of all, the 15-member Ethics Committee of SYRIZA under Antonis Kotsakas should not simply manage the proposal to delete Stefanos Tzoumakas. If that were the only thing, a suspension for a period of the party status of the former minister, who hails from PASOK, might have provided a solution. And it would be acceptable since even Kasselakis’ critics found Tzoumaka’s attitude harsh and mean.

The game is changing

But now here the game changes. For many, Kasselakis is making a show of presidential punch without securing a majority even in the Central Committee. Simply, as the opposition says, “he is clearing the landscape to go to a Central Committee meeting that will be able to favorably launch his plan.”

On the other hand, the neo-presidential group stands in the opposition’s position, that essentially the latter do not accept the election of Kasselakis from the base of ordinary members.

Here the new president of SYRIZA has as his own promotional weapon that for a part of the base the forces of Umbrella and its allies “are dead weight that undermined the party and Tsipras”.

Be that as it may, Pandora’s box is now wide open and all scenarios are possible.