In the effort to forge a united front, the party’s leadership seeks compromise with the party’s radical left wing at a meeting of Syriza’s central committee at the weekend, with both sides agreeing to avoid internal strife ahead of possible snap elections early next year.

Syriza’s leadership sought to bury the hatchet with the left wing opposition within the party in the name of unity on Sunday by essentially erasing language, at its central committee meeting, that hints to its stated objective to form political alliances with other parties.

With recent polls suggesting that Syriza has widened its lead over ruling New Democracy,  both sides reportedly agreed to avoid intra-party bickering over its leadership’s bid to cooperate with parties, including Pasok, Dimar and lawmakers that had previously voted for the austerity policies enshrined in the two memoranda Greece signed with international lenders.

The prospect of a ‘national understanding’ with other parties as declared by Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras at the Thessaloniki Trade Fair last month had drawn the ire of the ‘Left Platform’ and the ‘53 Central Committee members’’, which represent the left wing opposition, to the point of threatening a rupture within the party.

But in the name of cohesion, the opposition refrained from submitting an amendment it had reportedly prepared, which challenged Tsipras’ vision of political alliances.
 
There was no definitive decision over the hotly contested issue of political alliances and the decision was deferred to a later date.

Syriza’s shift to the centre is tied to its leadership’s aim to stifle the coalition government’s drive to secure 180 votes needed to elect a president in February and thus avoid snap elections – in accordance with the Greek constitution.

Despite the calls for unity, the central committee debate demonstrated just how fragmented Syriza is over a range of issues and the difficulties that lie ahead in the effort to build consensus from within.
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A case in point was an amendment tabled by the ‘Left Platform’ which was narrowly defeated in a vote.

Among other proposals, the amendment proposed the state control of banks, a radical transformation of the tax system in favour of workers, public investments, the cancellation of previous privatisations and the abolition of the country's privatisation fund that was set up by the troika of lenders to manage the sale to private investors of the country's state assets.

It was voted down by 76 against 61 which illustrates the enormity of the task to forge a united front in anticipation of early elections.

Syriza parliamentary spokesman: “We will cancel the bailout agreement overnight”

In a further indication of internal policy divisions inside Syriza, its parliamentary spokesman Panayotis Lafazanis told Mega TV on Monday that if Syriza comes to power, it will cancel the bailout agreements overnight.

“The country has come apart. This forces us to implement radical policies to face the severe problems,” he said.  

Lafazanis, who leads the party’s internal opposition as the leader of the ‘Left Platform’, also said that the pledges announced by Tsipras at the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair will be implemented from the first day without prior consultation with the country’s debtors.

However, referring to the debt, he stood against a unilateral write-off of the debt: “We will not take a sponge and wipe it all out,” he said. “We will try to get the largest part written down.”

He also said that claims against Germany, for war reparations and for a loan the Greek National Bank was forced to give to the Nazi during WWII, will be included in the state’s budget.

“We don’t owe, they owe us,” he said.