Eight members of SYRIZA Political Secretariat walked out of the body's meeting

Eight members of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance's Political Secretariat walked out of the body's meeting on Thursday, expressing their disagreement with party leader Stefanos Kasselakis' proposal about the viability of 'Avghi' newspaper and 'Sto Kokkino' radio station.

The eight include Olga Gerovassili, Alekos Flabouraris, Yiannis Ragoussis, Thanassis Theocharopoulos, Kostas Zachariadis, Katerina Notopoulou, Irini Symeonidou and Zoi Karkoulia. (Gerovassili and Notopoulou are also party deputies.)

According to party sources, the main opposition leader proposed at the Political Secretariat meeting that funding of the two party-connected media "should be found even through borrowing, so that staff get paid their owed wages, and so that the cost of voluntary resignations is covered."

The eight disagreeing members tabled a document in which they criticized Kasselakis for not providing a viability solution - the agenda's only item, they said - while they charged that there is a continuation of "the coverup around the facts related to the party's finances, despite the rise of revenues in the past year." In addition, they also criticized the ex-agenda discussion about the replacement of resigned deputy Othon Iliopoulos by Kasselakis, if all others on the waiting list give up their right to the parliamentary seat.

These actions, the eight said, "humiliate us publicly as individuals, and our party as well."

Party member Pavlos Polakis, who had been expelled from the parliamentary group but remains a member of the Political Secretariat, raised the issue of leadership. "Today's leadership cannot provide a political solution; there must be change, and I will contribute to that," Polakis stressed.

Unnamed sources at the party's headquarter clarified that Kasselakis "does not plan to resign."

AMNA