by Vasiliki Siouti
This time it is not the usual suspects of the radical ‘Left Platform’ (Aristeri Platforma) of the party who habitually criticise the party’s organs and routinely take positions different to those of the majority. This time – and this is what makes it newsworthy – the ‘protesters’ are allies of Alexis Tsipras from the ruling majority.
More specifically, all who follow the internal politics of SYRIZA know that the political wing to which its leader belonged was AREN (short for Aristeri Enotita, or Left Bloc). All of Alexis Tsipras’s old comrades belonged to this bloc back in the ‘stone age’ when the party was still a coalition known as Synaspismos. Milios, Voutsis, Vitsas, Papas, Scourletis, Karitzis, Koronakis, Konstantatos, Tsakalotos are just a few of them.
When the SYRIZA of 4% rocketed to 27% – unexpectedly for most of the party’s officials, not even Alexis Tsipras believed that they would surpass 10% in the May 2012 elections – a lot of things changed. For one, the president of the party slowly adopted more of a central leadership role, as some in the new environment, in order to curry political favour, took to presenting the electoral result as Tsipras’s personal achievement, ignoring the real political facts.
Nikos Papas, his chief of staff, became in a very short space of time the new power player – the ‘number 2’ of Koumoundourou (as SYRIZA’s HQ is commonly known), in demand for meetings with all manner of people who wanted to approach SYRIZA or its leadership.
Equally rapidly in the new environment surrounding the president, figures from PASOK and large media organisations began coming and going. Subsequently friendly meetings took place between the party leadership and high powered editors of the ‘establishment’ for which no explanations were given, nor – it was said – could anyone understand why exactly they had taken place.
And more recently, there was the activity of the former PR guru of George Papandreou who took over the pre election campaign of SYRIZA, was behind the ‘poaching’ of the ‘New Greece’ slogan from New Democracy and the cooperation with journalists who were once singing George Papandreou’s praises when he was in office.
All of this, in conjunction with the de facto distancing of many party officials from the leader’s circle and the ‘turn towards realism’ seriously displeased the old AREN. Much more so because none of the above came from communal decisions by the party. Instead Alexis Tsipras was seen as centralizing power in a manner that was foreign to the culture of SYRIZA.
In the meantime, following 2012 there was another differentiation among the AREN members who could be said to have split into two groups – let’s call them left-AREN and right-AREN. Those who did not approve of the deviation from the positions established by the party conference and the move towards the center (which became an apparent trend after the 2012 elections), make up left-AREN, while those who agree with this repositioning make up right-AREN.
The faction that currently appears to have been angered and has been critical of the leadership is left-AREN, with whom Voutsis, Tsakalotos, Karitzis, Koronakis, Konstantatos, Scourletis appear to be aligned, among others.
This is the side that took the initiative after the elections, gathering signatures for a text that was critical, albeit well-intentioned and in measured tones.
This initiative became immediately known to Alexis Tsipras who assembled the old AREN (right and left) for a meeting which he asked be kept away from the public eye. The members who were invited were surprised, as few could even remember when AREN last met.
According to sources, Tsipras was very clear and told them that if they wanted the government to fall then it was essential that they must first find the 121 MPs required in order to prevent the election of a new President of the Republic (in elections due in March), and for the country subsequently to go to national elections. According to the logic of the leadership, for that to happen they need to approach MPs such as Ms Tsakris and other independents, which requires the success of the ‘turn towards realism’ approach.
The same sources maintain that during the meeting there was no substantive opposition to this by the party officials present and Tsipras took their stance to mean that they approved of his approach and would withdraw their criticisms.
This weekend will determine what is to follow for SYRIZA’s internal politics when the Central Political Committee is due to convene.