Alexis Tsipras Urges Renewed Confidence Vote Ahead of Syriza Conference

The former prime minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras, spoke out shortly before the start of the Syriza conference, addressing internal party dynamics and urging the newly appointed Syriza leader, Stefanos Kasselakis, to seek a renewed vote of confidence from the party’s membership.

“I can neither remain silent, nor can I attend a conference that has been set up to ignore the critical problems in the name of false optimism,” said former Syriza President Alexis Tsipras in an article-intervention.

Referring to the New Left, he emphasized, “The losers of the internal party elections have already left the party, because they lost the battle for its leadership. Irrespective of whether with multi-coinage the one who wins is our political opponent.”

Tsipras asks for new confidence vote ahead of Syriza conference

Speaking about Stefanos Kasselakis, the leader of Syriza, Tsipras said, “The winner is allegedly asking for a three-year blank check, regardless of the outcome of the European elections. Thus discounting the electoral failure and ignoring its consequences. While others argue in the background, but silently wait for the electoral failure to come, so they can blame it on him.”

Tsipras added, “Yesterday, the president clearly raised a matter of trust in his person, at the meeting of the Political Secretariat. And I believe he did it correctly.”

He further stated that Kasselakis “was elected without having time to formulate his positions and plan in detail…To lead the party into the upcoming election battle it must be clear that it has, at this critical moment, the confidence of the majority. Only that the vote of confidence must be requested from those who elected him president and not from the Political Secretariat. Instead of dragging ourselves into a protracted crisis that leads precisely to new electoral contraction, the only way out is to give the floor anew to those who kept and continue to keep our party and faction standing: To our members.”

Alexis Tsipras’ full statement before Syriza conference

“On June 29, after the electoral defeat, I made a difficult but imperative decision,” Tsipras said. “I decided to step aside for a new wave to pass in the leadership of SYRIZA-PS. I wanted with my attitude to cause an electric shock of retraction in the shaken party organization, which was faced with an unexpected defeat on a large scale, so that it would soon recover. To renew, to restore, to recover and to be led again and quickly on a path of reliable and effective opposition and governmental assertion.”

“Many then tried to convince me, but I persisted,” he said. “And I don’t regret my choice for a moment. I did what was right and what was morally and politically required. Always guided by the ideas and values ​​that motivated me from my youth to join the Left. And with a view to the good of the faction to which I dedicated a large part of my life. All this time, of almost eight months, I reverently kept my choice to step aside. It wasn’t an attitude of expediency, it was an attitude of responsibility.”

He also said, “I took full responsibility for the defeat. I also took the responsibility of withdrawing from party processes. The responsibility also, not to succumb to the pressures of all those who asked me from time to time to intervene, to ‘save the party,’ many because they believed so and some because they wanted to serve personal strategies.”

The former prime minister gave a warning

“Today, in front of the SYRIZA-PS conference, I take on yet another responsibility,” he said. “Not cheap criticism. Nor of my involvement in power games. But the responsibility to warn of what I see coming and must be prevented. The responsibility to tell the truth, as I see it and feel it. And to propose a solution.”

Alexis Tsipras also spoke about a prolonged crisis

In speaking about the Syriza party’s crisis, Alexis Tsipras said:

Our party has long been in a prolonged and deep crisis. In less than four months, however, the country is heading for European elections. With the Mitsotakis government seeing the first cracks in the politics of hegemony. In conditions of regime authoritarianism and undermining of the rule of law. In conditions of shrinking real income, but also soaring profits of large business groups. In conditions of dramatic widening of inequalities, but also of social processes with farmers and students on the streets.

Will there be, therefore, in these conditions, a progressive answer at the ballot box? SYRIZA-P.S. will claim the role of credible alternative to the declining hegemony of an arrogant, authoritarian and corrupt government? With persistence, realism, seriousness and reliability? Will the arrogance of the 41 percent end on the Sunday of the European elections? Will a ray of hope emerge? Or will the threat of a black horizon emerge—that of the extreme right? These are the critical questions that should concern us all. From the president to every member and friend of the party.

Syriza’s paralysis, according to Alexis Tspiras

And Tsipras continued:

But the picture is not that we are concerned with these. It is as if we have turned our backs on society, although we constantly talk about the need to strengthen our ties with it. What is seen is an internal struggle that is more about personal expediency and less about society. Phenomena of selfishness, narcissism, violation of the principles of collectivity and companionship, have paralyzed the party organization.

As a result, the image being broadcast is that we are indifferent to society and the outcome of the upcoming election. We don’t care if the crisis in SYRIZA creates conditions for the absence of an opposition, uncontrolled governance and therefore ultimately a crisis of democracy. And this indifference does not concern one, it concerns many.

Is leadership the only important thing?

“The losers of the internal party elections have already left the party,”  he said, “because they lost the battle for its leadership. Regardless of whether with multi-coinage the one who wins is our political opponent. The winner is said to be asking for a three-year blank cheque, regardless of the outcome of the European elections.”

“Thus discounting the electoral failure and ignoring its consequences,” he added. “While others argue in the background, but silently wait for the election failure to come, so they can blame it on him. Regardless of what this will mean for the faction and the country.”

Alexis Tsipras said he could no longer remain silent about Syriza’s issues

“If things are like this, I can neither remain silent nor attend a conference that is designed to ignore critical problems in the name of false optimism,” he concluded. “A conference, where we will all pretend together how loved we are and the audience will applaud us. No. Personally, I don’t miss neither the step nor the applause.”

“This is not a time for applause, but for telling the truth,” he said. “If we continue like this, we are headed with mathematical precision into the void. And we have to get serious, change course and think outside the closed boundaries of the intra-party debate, what our role is and should be in Greek society. And how can we respond to him?”

“The members and executives of SYRIZA will come to the conference today with the main feeling of anxiety for the party, the perspective of the progressive faction, the present and the future of the country,” he continued. “With special respect for this anxiety, but also with the aim of making it a propulsive force, the only solution is absolute political honesty. From everyone and for everything.”

The importance of Syriza’s members, as stated by Alexis Tsipras

“Instead of dragging ourselves into a protracted crisis that leads precisely to a new electoral contraction, the only way out is to give the floor anew to those who kept and continue to keep our party and faction standing: To our members,” he said.

“Thus, Stefanos Kasselakis will have the opportunity to claim confidence in his person, in his term of office so far and in his political plan,” he urged. “Not by asking questions, but by giving his own answers. And those who have another plan, will have the opportunity to submit their opinions and nominations. Now openly and democratically. Before another electoral failure turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy and becomes inevitable.”

“This, I believe, is the only clean, honest and democratic solution to the Gordian nexus before us,” Tsipras cautioned. “Because the initiatives we need now are the ones that will create redemption at home, but also the conditions for a strong political counterattack against the conservative faction. We don’t have time on our side. We therefore cannot afford to hide, the luxury of not making immediate decisions.”

“Finally, as far as I am concerned, I want to make it clear once again: History, the people and the progressive faction have honored me even more,” he stated. “My only ambition today is to fight in the field of ideas, so that the progressive party can once again become a hope for the people and society. And to always take responsibility to boldly say what I believe.”

Former PM of Greece and former Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras has now asserted that new Syriza leader Stefanos Kasselakis should obtain a vote of confidence from members.