‘We need a new, methodical, efficient, modern Syriza,’ says Achtsioglou at central committee’s unfolding two-day assembly meeting

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SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance can be reconstructed in the direction of a “new modern left-wing party that can be the core, the center and the main exponent of the democratic and progressive world,” noted Effie Achtsioglou while officially submitting her candidacy for the party’s leadership, during the Central Committee’s two-day assembly meeting that began on Saturday at a central Athens hotel.

“We need a new, methodical, efficient, modern Syriza,” she noted. Achtsioglou had since Wednesday announced that she will run for party leader.

All the candidacies of those who wish to run for the party’s leadership will be submitted officially during the proceedings, while the committee is also expected to approve the roadmap for the process of electing a new party leader, following Alexis Tsipras’ resignation after the June 25 national elections.

The committee is also expected to authorize the party’s political secretariat to take decisions concerning the candidacies for the country’s upcoming municipal elections in October.

Rania Svigou

Meanwhile, the party’s Central Committee Secretary Rania Svigou noted that “we are called here today, with a sense of responsibility, with collective reflection and collective effort, to chart the path that will lead, step-by-step, to what Alexis Tsipras called Syriza’s ‘new wave’.”

She emphasized that ‘new wave’ means “new wave in our leadership, in our behaviors, in the program, policies, and our communication with society. A new wave that will once again raise the party to the level we achieved in previous years and even higher: to being the force that will have the ability, the will, but also the policy and the program to stand against New Democracy, being the main opposition party today, as the Constitution dictates and the vote of the people mandated us to be, and as a government tomorrow.”

Finally, Svigou noted that the Political Secretariat’s proposal to the Central Committee is that the election of the party’s leader be held in the beginning of September.

Nikos Pappas

The only prospect “of removing the Mitsotakis government” is that of Syriza, Nikos Pappas noted in his statement after submitting his candidacy for party leader on Saturday.

“A very creative dialogue has started within us, a dialogue concerning society. Syriza is the official opposition party. We aim to win over centrist and centre-left voters. We will not fold, we will make our openings, we will do everything to convince broader forces that the only prospect of removing Kyriakos Mitsotakis from power is Syriza.”

Euclid Tsakalotos

Euclid Tsakalotos, who submitted his candidacy for party leader on Friday, noted that Syriza “must be clear about its positions on public-free education, on health, and on the welfare state.”

He also noted that the party can indeed be clear about issues such as the guarding of the borders as well as with international law and safe passages, he noted.

Pavlos Polakis

The party congress that will elect the new party leader should be held after the municipal and local government elections scheduled for Sunday, October 8, noted Pavlos Polakis on Saturday.

In the meantime, he added, party’s current parliamentary head, Sokratis Famellos, can very well represent the party at the upcoming Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF), due in early September, he added.

If all this is approved during the voting process on Sunday – on the second and final day of the Central Committee assembly meeting – then Polakis might consider submitting his candidacy for party leader, he stressed.
But, if “we move along into a logic of a fast-track procedure and in ‘lifestyle’ terms imposed by some systemic media,” he noted, “well, then I have no place in such a process.”

Stefanos Tzoumakas

Central Committee member Stefanos Tzoumakas also tabled his candidacy for party leader during proceedings on Saturday, saying that “our party needs ideological and political reorganization, organizational expansion and a new plan of action, with positions and initiatives that will mobilize society in a creative fighting attitude, and in pursuit of solutions.”

Source: ΑΝΑ – ΜPA

The archaelogical site of the Acropolis to close from 13.00 to 17.00 on Sunday