Greek political landscape ablaze after SYRIZA’s Polakis upheaval

The new conflict between Pavlos Polakis and the leadership of SYRIZA, triggered by yesterday’s posts by the main opposition’s Cretan MP, has caused tremors among party cadres, while by tomorrow, Tuesday, everything is expected to be clarified regarding whether he will be included in the ballots ahead of the elections.

All the statements from the side of SYRIZA converge on the fact that party headquarters will hardly get along with the once beloved “comrade” Pavlos Polakis.

How we got to the break between Tsipras and Polakis – The whole background

The decision of the SYRIZA MP to pursue, in essence, personal policies that are not consistent with the party line, was the element that angered the SYRIZA leadership.

Hard line

Yesterday’s announcement by the party and the flabbergasting dismissal of the MP from Sfakia was not just by chance.

“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” SYRIZA sources state” in response to Pavlos Polakis’ out-of-line post.

Pavlos Polakis has already been removed from the position of Transparency department head, while tomorrow Tuesday, decisions are expected to be made on the future of Pavlos Polakis, as 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.

What is certain is that Polaki’s post yesterday, in which he targeted journalists, members of the judiciary and the administration of Independent Public Revenue Authority-AADE, as well as Greek banking executives, once again set “fire” to the political scene and certainly caused tremors in SYRIZA, at a time a situation where the country has entered the final stretch for the announcement of elections, with a possible date of April 9.

Despite the seeming calm that followed the “blackmail” of Polakis for inclusion in the SYRIZA ballots of Michalis Hairetakis, it took another post by the MP to lead, as everything seems, to a rupture with the party.

It seems that the president of SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras has made his decisions and the most likely scenario is that Pavlos Polakis will not be included on the party’s ballots.

It is worth recalling one more post by Pavlos Polakis after the initial one that caused the “tsunami” of reactions, with which he responded to the announcement of SYRIZA in which he was… fired.

“We will speak of everything to the Political Secretariat and the Central Committee” was the reaction of Mr. Polakis, who noted that he does not want to open a dialogue with “sources”.

As he argued, “obviously there are procedures and institutions in which I participated and was elected, and indeed with a very high percentages”.

“There we will talk and clarify, who is right!”.

The day after

In the event that the “divorce” of Polakis with SYRIZA is finalized, then it is possible that the main opposition party will more emphatically attempt to approach voters from a larger “reservoir” of the Center.

After all, there was even a portion of SYRIZA voters who disagreed with Polaki’s practices and the way he decided to intervene and comment on political developments or judicial decisions.

However, there is also the other side, the hard core of SYRIZA which is not at all certain to agree with the looming rift between Polakis and Tsipras.

A “barrage” from the parties

Yesterday’s suspension of Polakis, in addition to the internal turmoil in SYRIZA, caused reactions in the Opposition as well.

“Polakism is the highest stage of a type of politics, Syrizism, which was inspired, nurtured and magnified by Mr. Tsipras, systematically covering for Mr. Polakis”: this is what the government spokesman Yannis Economou emphasized in a statement today, after the posting of MP of SYRIZA Pavlos Polakis.

Yesterday, ruling New Democracy  requested the definitive deletion of Pavlos Polakis from SYRIZA, noting the following:

“In its announcement, SYRIZA mentions various procedural and communication issues regarding the damage it is suffering, but it does not find a single word to say about the regulations and the essence of what Mr. Polakis said was unacceptable,” states the Piraeus announcement, among other things.

For practices that “don’t have any connection with Democracy or with the rule of law” says PASOK – KINAL regarding the post of Pavlos Polakis, which caused turmoil in SYRIZA.

“In any European party that respects the rule of law, persons who have either been convicted by the Court of Justice or are delirious against the institutions and human rights, would have already been cast out of the party” states PASOK – KINAL and adds that “once again, the SYRIZA’s leadership group proves to be not just a sponsor but a great benefactor of New Democracy.”

Communist Party KKE noted that the confrontation is wrongly targeted, underlining that in this way “the common anti-popular policies of New Democracy, SYRIZA and PASOK” go unpunished.

“It is very convenient to argue that the “deep state” is located in some journalists and judges and not in those who have the “keys” of the economy, on the basis of which they control and intervene in the mechanisms of the state, the media, governments and civil society. parties for their own interests” initially states the announcement of the KKE press office on the Polakis case.

In any case, adds KKE – and given the political differences of the party with the specific SYRIZA MP and SYRIZA as a whole, it is stated that “the prosecutor’s order for a preliminary examination on the occasion of a post of political content, regardless of the agreement or disagreement with it, is an unacceptable action that opens very dangerous paths”.

For its part, MERA25 notes, among other things, through the press representative Michalis Kritharidis, that the way in which Mr. Polakis practised politics was known to the leadership of SYRIZA-PS.

“The integration and surrender of the leadership of SYRIZA-PS to the oligarchic system after the capitulation on the evening of July 5, 2015 was also known to Mr. Polakis. Let’s not kid ourselves,” the announcement added.