{"id":10804,"date":"2026-06-15T12:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T09:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=10804"},"modified":"2026-06-15T12:51:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T09:51:00","slug":"efi-michelaki-has-left-the-kasselakis-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=10804","title":{"rendered":"Efi Michelaki has left the Kasselakis Party"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On <b>resignation <\/b>from her position as deputy press secretary <b>of the Democrats\u2013 Progressive Center,<\/b> as well as her departure from the party, in an extensive post on social media by <b> Efi Michelaki.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In her post, she refers to <strong>her journey <\/strong>alongside <strong>Stefanos Kasselakis, <\/strong>from the time of his election as leader of <strong>SYRIZA <\/strong>until the creation of the new political party, while expressing her <strong>disagreement <\/strong>with how the party currently operates.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, she states that she will always remain the <strong>political prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Andreas Papandreou,<\/strong> whom she described as \u201cthe most charismatic leader Greece has ever had,\u201d concluding her statement with a characteristic quote from the founder of PASOK regarding the decisions that must be made \u201cwith our heads held high, without fear but with passion.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"embed-responsive\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"el\" dir=\"ltr\">Friends,<\/p>\n<p>From the very moment Stefanos Kasselakis appeared on the political scene, I was impressed by his positive qualities.<br \/>I felt he had exceptional communication skills without any arrogance\u2014a quality I value in people\u2014and so I choose to\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/q4G47pDg2s<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Efi Mixelaki (@EMixelaki) June 14, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>Here is her social media post in full:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cFriends,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>From the very moment Stefanos Kasselakis appeared on the political scene, I was impressed by his positive qualities.<\/em><br \/><em>I felt he possessed exceptional communication skills without arrogance\u2014a quality I value in people and thus choose to associate with.<\/em><br \/><em>Of course, at that time, I could not support the other side vying for the leadership because, after 12 years in SYRIZA, I had come to understand the gap that existed between us in terms of our understanding of politics as well as in terms oftoward Alexis Tsipras.&lt;\/<br \/><em>So I supported Stefanos Kasselakis in the election for the presidency of SYRIZA with all my strength, and I have continued to do so to this day.<\/em><br \/><em>I will never forget the coup-like behavior of those who saved their own homes, but rather simply changed the lock, with the sole result of begging for a spot in the new country house.<\/em><br \/><em>As a member of the central committee at the time, I refused to enter this mausoleum of the squandering of Democracy.<\/em><br \/><em>Along with many others, we were among the first to begin building the Democracy Movement, and we succeeded through great effort, a daily presence in Tavros and, as far as I\u2019m concerned, daily television appearances to defend with all my heart what I believed in and to support Stefanos. I took on a responsibility that I served until the very last moment.<\/em><br \/><em>Today, if I look around me, there is no one left from those of us who were there every day through the hard times, simply because that is where our conscience led us, and we believed we would create something new, pure, and democratic.<\/em><br \/><em>Usually the architect leaves first\u2026 I chose to leave last, not out of weakness but out of a sense of responsibility for the foundations we laid, which unfortunately have crumbled.<\/em><br \/><em>I haven\u2019t spoken until today, nor do I intend to go into details, because I firmly believe that disagreements are meant to be resolved internally. But only when there is room for resolution. I can no longer be part of an effort with which I do not align.<\/em><br \/><em>I have never been a bystander to developments nor a servant of \u201cclosed groups\u201d that are typically devoid of political thought. Inevitably, I will not do so now either.<\/em><br \/><em>At the same time, I left a space because of the exclusion of the many by the few, and I will not allow such a thing to happen again. When a political space resembles the very thing it sought to fight, it leaves you no choice; it simply forces you to confront your own dignity. Personally, I won\u2019t give that up to anyone.<\/em><br \/><em>My dream is not to become part of a small, inward-looking faction within the party that goes against my ideology and values.<\/em><br \/><em>I strongly supported Stefanos Kasselakis, and I was also pleased with his recent acquittal. My conscience is clear because I\u2019ve been saying this since others were avoiding supporting him in the major battles.<\/em><br \/><em>I will always remain the political child of the most charismatic leader Greece has ever seen, none other than Andreas Papandreou, and I am resigning as deputy press spokesperson while also leaving the Movement for Democracy, now known as Democrats &#8211; Progressive Center, with a phrase of his own full of courage and emotion that serve as driving forces for life\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c\u201cWe must make the decisions about our future ourselves, with our heads held high, without fear but with passion.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Thank you to everyone who welcomed me into this space. The interaction and engagement were nothing but genuine and wonderful. I hope Stefanos Kasselakis will personally put a stop to the trolls who try to tear apart anyone who disagrees. But even if he doesn\u2019t, it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Efi Michalaki<\/em><br \/><em>Until today, Deputy Spokesperson for the Democrats \u2013 Progressive Center\u00bb<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Her resignation from her position as deputy press secretary for the Democrats\u2013Progressive Center, as well as her departure from the party, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}