Nikos Pappas is, in his own way, showing the way out to Sokratis Famellos from the leadership of SYRIZA.
Sokratis Famellos, following the attacks against him, decided to dismiss Nikos Pappas from his position as the party’s parliamentary spokesperson, apparently to appease Alexis Tsipras. A few days earlier, he had expelled Pavlos Polakis from the SYRIZA parliamentary group, hoping that there would be no backlash against the transfer of personnel and, above all, assets from SYRIZA to ELAS.
Nikos Pappas, however, sent a message shortly after his expulsion that was a direct jab at Sokratis Famellos regarding what was to come: “No one is irreplaceable” was the comment he made to reporters, and he obviously wasn’t referring to himself.
According to reports, the minority faction within SYRIZA intends to go… to see Sokratis Famellos through to the end and remove him from the party leadership. The plan is that once they gain a majority in the party bodies—following the mass exodus of officials to ELAS—they will formally challenge the president.
Among other things, they are considering calling for an extraordinary party congress and even taking legal action, such as seeking injunctions, primarily regarding the party leadership and its assets. All of this, of course, assumes that Alexis Tsipras does not agree to bring them all into ELAS, which at this point seems unlikely.
A well-known member of parliament belonging to the minority faction told his colleagues, in his characteristically forceful manner, that he has no interest whatsoever in forming a party against Alexis Tsipras and deprive him of even a single vote. And apparently, the minority’s clash with the former prime minister is beginning to take on greater proportions, as through officials of the Hellenic Police, Alexis Tsipras has made it clear that he will not accept a blanket merger with SYRIZA, but only individual members—and even then, only after an evaluation.
