A. Tsipras’s bet and the election trap from the grassroots

By Niki Zorba

Marathon end for the conference procedures of SYRIZA. Now the “sprint” begins.

Next Sunday will be for the party of the official opposition and especially for its president the beginning of the end of the “warm-up” for the transformation of SYRIZA or the end… of the beginning for its reconstruction.

The ballot boxes

It depends on the point of view from which everyone approaches the issue of “election of a president and a central committee from the base of the party”. For Alexis Tsipras, the bet is both clear and clearly imprinted by him: Participation in the internal party process will have the character of a poll and electoral rehearsal for SYRIZA. The bar was raised by its president from the beginning. Politically, of course, and not numerically, as the leadership of Koumoundourou completely avoids talking specifically about the criterion for evaluating participation. How many will they be satisfied with? How many thousands of member votes separate triumph from catastrophe?

Apart from the reports of an “unprecedented procedure” in which there are no specific measurable criteria as it cannot be compared to corresponding recent procedures (see KINAL), Koumoundourou avoids other relevant (and more specific reports). It should be noted, however, that at the polls on May 15, even those who come today and ask to register as members of the party have the right to vote for the election of a president (ie re-election of Alexis Tsipras). The same, however, does not apply to the ballot box that will highlight the new Central Committee of SYRIZA. Only those who have registered before March 21 have the right to participate.

In the “central”, there is widespread optimism for participation in the ballot box regarding the election of a president. The bar, however, is – objectively – at the approximately 61,000 members that the party has today. The campaign for participation will intensify in the remaining week until 15.05 with Alexis Tsipras in the center shot: Tours, public interventions and so on.

The umbrella”

The “Umbrella” for its part, however, has a clearer “bet” on its performance in the promotion of the members of the new central committee. “Anything over 26% will be satisfactory for us” say its executives about the power correlation in the 300 of the new K.E.

However, there is “concern” and concern on their part about the climate that prevails in the Prefectures of the party in view of the “battle” of the central committee. Overcrowding of candidates competing for a position in the CoE. they show signs of civil war, they say, which do not concern this time against the majority and “Umbrella” but the presidential ones, between them.

As mutual suspicion abounds within the party, there are not a few on the presidential side who are “psychedelic” that the “Umbrella” executives will give a “line” for “white” in the vote for the re-election of Alexis Tsipras. Rebuke and accusations that do not share the headquarters of Koumoundourou, in any way.

“It would be like shooting their feet, they would not move like that,” an official opposition official told K, who, however, acknowledged that the climate inside remained explosive. Until at least the pending procedures are completed and the party passes to the next day.

For Alexis Tsipras, in any case, the bet is also personal. He has made the election of a president from the grassroots as well as the top party body a top issue. Obviously, there is no concern for the predominance of the presidential bloc in the power relations that the ballot box of the CoE will bring out.

However, regardless of how SYRIZA chooses to read the participation in the internal party process of May 15, the impressions can not be judged by the amount of participation. Election rehearsals and a “message of overthrow” of the government like the one that SYRIZA wants to give to the process with only 60,000 at the ballot box, will probably seem unprofitable.

* Republished from the “Chapter” that is circulating