New Left parliamentary group dissolves as seven MPs quit

Alexis Charitsis, Nasos Iliopoulos, Efi Achtsioglou, Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, Hussein Zeibek, Meropi Tzoufi and Theano Fotiou have become independent MPs.

‘We are leaving New Left because we believe that the cycle that began two years ago has reached its limits. It is a difficult but necessary decision,’ they said in their statement.

The announcement by the 150 officials reads:

‘We are leaving New Left because we believe that the cycle that began two years ago has reached its limits. It is a difficult but necessary decision.

‘New Left was not a party of silence or equal distances. It was the political force that, within an increasingly conservative and authoritarian political environment, had sharp and substantiated parliamentary discourse and lively movement activity. We did not back down on issues of principle. We developed and supported radical positions and proposals on every critical issue concerning society and democracy in our country.

‘We know, however, that having the right positions or fighting honest battles is not enough. What matters is whether these acquire social grounding, momentum and social impact. Whether they can organise majority currents and contribute, today, to addressing the critical problems facing the world of labour and the social majority.

‘As New Left, we placed in the public debate the need for a popular front, for unity against the right and the far right. The need for a programmatic confrontation with the Mitsotakis regime. We insisted on real conflicts.

‘Today, we see clearly that the strategy chosen by the majority of New Left’s leadership cannot respond to this need. We respect the comrades with whom we met along the way. However, we disagree on the crucial strategic issue. Today, our different assessments lead us down different paths.

‘The logic of the autonomous reconstruction of the radical left in times of deep crisis is not enough, at a time when the demand for a rallying of forces and for a real political alternative to the right of corruption, authoritarianism and class bias in favour of the powerful is growing stronger within society. If the left cannot serve this front today, it cannot serve the necessary struggle for socialism with democracy and freedom.

‘The current regime must not have a third term, with or without Mitsotakis.

‘We hear this demand. We do not believe that complete identification is required for a common path to exist. What matters is the formation of the conditions for a broad political and social rally, with the ultimate aim of transforming left ideas into applied radical policies.

‘The renewing and radical left today can and must be useful in the people’s struggle for democracy and justice, in the struggle of the popular classes for life and not mere survival, in the struggle for peace and against modern forms of barbarity, such as Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.

‘That is where the real battle lies today, and it is for this purpose that we will work.’

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