Developments regarding SYRIZA continue to unfold at a breakneck pace, with Sokratis Famellos opting for a strategy of dynamic consolidation of the internal party landscape.
So yesterday, he apparently decided that he must remain… alone in the party, and proceeded to make radical and rather unexpected changes in the leadership of the Parliamentary Group, sending a clear message in every direction that the era of political balance is over.
The most significant move was undoubtedly the removal of Nikos Pappas from his position as parliamentary spokesperson —he was replaced by Theophilos Xanthopoulos and Kostas Barkas—a decision that sparked immediate and sharp reactions.
The response from the former minister’s inner circle was not long in coming, with sources laconically commenting that “no one is irreplaceable”, while his statement that he “will continue to fight to restore the party’s seriousness, cohesion, and rationality, with the aim of reversing the decline in the polls,” further inflamed the already tense atmosphere.
The turmoil also spread to SYRIZA’s communications arm with the replacement of press spokesperson Kostas Zachariadis by Christos Giannoulis. Moreover, the former made no secret of the fact that his political ambitions are now directed toward Tsipras’s party, having noted that its founding is creating a new reality that is reshaping the Left.
At the same time, Socrates Famellos chose to take up the gauntlet against Pavlos Polakis, launching a fierce personal attack on the independent MP, accusing him of causing internal division through his public statements and attempting to impose coercive dilemmas, thereby undermining collective decision-making. Before the meeting, Mr. Polakis had called on the MPs “to choose whom they will side with and whom they will leave behind,” while emphasizing that he himself would “remain in SYRIZA”.
In the political context, Mr. Famellos clarified that the Central Committee had decided neither to dissolve nor to suspend the party’s operations, while acknowledging the decisive role played by Alexis Tsipras’s ELAS.
