The “Red Cat” was there. He heard with his own ears what Kostas Laliotis say (at the 1996 succession conference of PASOK): “You, Aki, president, and you, Kostas, prime minister!” You might ask me, “What are you bringing this up for now?”

The memory came flooding back when I heard Louka Katseli say that Alexis Tsipras and Nikos Androulakis need to come to an agreement and run together in the elections. It didn’t assign specific roles, but the spirit of the article is similar to that kind of division.

However, the deal—once again—stalls because both leading figures want it all. Basically, the question that needs to be answered is this: If ELAS and PASOK merge into a single entity, who will be the prime ministerial candidate?

Alexis? Nikos? Or a third person? Could Louka, for example, be accepted? Or Giorgos (Papandreou—we’ll meet him in the lines that follow), who is always ready to serve his country?

This is what Anna Diamantopoulou hears in the background, and she decided to take up her weapon. The country’s former EU commissioner didn’t just take it out on Charis Doukas for his position that PASOK and ELAS should cooperate.

She also said something else: that the relevant decisions (regarding the alliances) will be made based on the election results, and it will be up to the Greek people to decide. Does that make sense? It does.

However, anyone who watched his interview on OPEN closely realized that her wording probably “slipped out” a bit, as it doesn’t align with the strategy that even her colleagues knew she had decided on. But that’s the job of journalists. To make you feel at ease and lead you to cross the offside line.

Spray, wipe, and you’re done! That’s more or less how Yanis Varoufakis thinks; he’s calling on anyone interested to run for parliament with his party and then—if elected—to… step down! To become an independent. In other words, get MeRA25 into Parliament, call me “Yanis” on the parliamentary floor, and then let everything go to hell.

Strictly… inappropriate

As for Zoi’s nerves, our Cat has already informed you in good time. The president of the Freedom Movement is trying on social media to pick a fight with Alexis Tsipras personally. She’s addressing him directly with the usual accusations of unreliability, betrayal, etc., adding a new label: unfit.

Here’s a reminder from the Cat. Do you remember in the early 2000s when Costas Simitis had begun to see Costas Karamanlis’s back? When pollsters had come up with the question “Who is best suited to be prime minister”?

New Democracy kept telling PASOK this, but Simitis was the “best suited.” Until he resigned before the elections and the hot potato of defeat was handed to… George Papandreou (your Cat had warned you).

Now, as for Maria Karystianou’s image—with her carefully selected outfits and fancy cars—what can we say? We’ve heard various things about the finances of the association of relatives of the Tempi victims, but our Cat doesn’t speak unless he knows for a fact and doesn’t spread rumors.

But it would be a good idea for the new party to disclose its sources of funding as well. Gas, staff, coffee, events. Simple things, but they add up. Especially those who present themselves as moral guardians in politics should be the first to put their own house in order.

Also, it would be a good idea—and this applies to both Elpida and ELAS—to present their governing bodies and leadership to the public. So that people know who is behind each idea, and so that anyone can ask for explanations on an issue that concerns them. Unless, of course, that’s the secret of the new parties: to keep their faces and platforms hidden so they can go with the flow, just like Coca-Cola.

Reasonable Assessments

Well, the best… SYRIZA reporter (by far) is Adonis Georgiadis. The Minister of Health predicted that only Famellos, Gerovasili, and Zachariadis will walk through the doors of the Hellenic Police.

All the other residents of Koumoundourou will be left empty-handed. Of course, Adonis doesn’t speak based on information, but on the logic he has proven he possesses. He thinks that if he brings them all back, “he’ll fail again!” Of course, this could also happen with the people he already has. Because SYRIZA’s DNA is already strong in the new party.

Pure arrogance

We were saying that over at Alexis’s ELAS, they’ve “let a bit too big for their boots, and yesterday Giorgos Siakantaris came out to confirm it. “I went with Tsipras because he had a vision of coming in first and winning an outright majority,” said the well-known professor, and predicted that “Nikos Androulakis won’t even come in second.”

If you don’t call that arrogance, what is it? Especially when it comes to a political space where he had been active in the past, supporting a more… right-wing direction. Just a note to the professor: “The Red Cat” isn’t the only one with a good memory in Greece. There are many who remember—and remember well—a great deal.

We told you so…

The newspaper you’re holding in your hands (and the website you’re reading) has been at the forefront of the revelations regarding Ms. Kovesi’s role. Months later, other media outlets are following suit, as everyone is slowly coming face-to-face with the truth: the target wasn’t New Democracy—it was Democracy itself! And the target was not (and is not) Greece.

The target was and is Europe. Because the vilification of the political class undermines parliamentary democracy and the European project. The weekend is starting, and “The Red Cat” offers some food for thought.