Maria Karystianou didn’t have much time to form a party before Maria Karystianou started to make massive departures with heavy allegations.
Perhaps the strongest core of Maria Karystianou’s party-in-formation is in Thessaloniki, where a short time ago it counted about 80 frontline members. However, things have changed recently, as more and more executives are appearing unhappy with the ambitious doctor.
Specifically, of the 80 executives in Thessaloniki, the… 50 have left and even with very serious allegations of authoritarian behavior by Maria Karystianou herself, non-existent political positions and cooperation with far-right elements. They even talk about opacity regarding the processes of creating the party, recalling the complaints of relatives for opacity and in the finances of the association of Tebes by Maria Karystianou.
Instrumentalizing the tragedy
One of the most important accusations of the departing executives is that Maria Karystianou instrumentalized the Tebes movement, in short, she stirred up the people for personal political gains.
According to reports, those who have left Karstianou’s nascent party appear particularly unhappy, they say, with “the far-right and ultra-conservative public positions adopted by the new political entity”, which they attribute in part to the pivotal role played by lawyer Maria Grazia.
“In the end we were asking who was shaping the new party’s declaration and we didn’t get an answer. We were asking who is involved in the so-called ‘committee of wise men’ and again we didn’t get an answer. These are authoritarian attitudes which have nothing to do with the organisational function and structure of grassroots movements. Eventually we realized that this was an instrumentalization of the “Tebon movement“, as we call it, and we left. Most silently and some in protest. This is ingratitude and disparagement of Ms. Karstianou towards dozens of people who voluntarily and selflessly believed and worked for this new project” says a political official from the Left who left the party of Maria Karstianou.
The departures have no end
We should note that the aforementioned executives are not the only ones who have departed from Maria Karystianou in the last period of time. For example, many presidents of small political formations that had become close to Maria Karystianou, such as Nikos Nikolopoulos or Dmitris Kouvelas, have distanced themselves, while the Left as a whole has already taken clear distances.
In addition, a former ANEL executive who played a central role in the formation of the party has been removed, citing lack of experience and absence of serious political stigma, while we all remember the complaints made by Nikos Karachalios, who was a close associate of Maria Karastianou for some time.
Finally, apart from the relatives of the tragedy of Tebes who have turned their backs on Maria Karystianou‘s political plans, a similar climate prevails in the online groups that support her, as many members strongly disagree about the next political steps.
