Two days after Spiros Likoudis, leader of Democratic Left Fotis Kouvelis’ former secretary and closest associate, left the party another 24 members of the central committee today announced their withdrawal too.
"For quite some time we have been in conflict with the decisions of the leadership of Democratic Left, which violate the positions adopted upon establishing the party... The atmosphere created by these decisions leaves no space, either for us or for the party," they emphasize in their declaration.
As for the congress scheduled for October, they state that "the congresses of the left party take place either to give the floor to party members or to silence them. The upcoming congress of the leadership, not of the party, falls within the second category. We said in the beginning that we would not participate in this congress, and we were quite sure about this."
The 24 members however state that they remain in the party and support its constituent declarations.
Their action of today is not surprising, since, as soon as Likoudis announced that he would leave the party and become an independent MP, the 26 members of the reformist trend in Democratic Left led by him met and decided to leave the party as well.
After the meeting, Likoudis announced that they would not participate in the congress and that their main objective would be "to take initiatives in the broad progressive and democratic space."
Regardless of whether he will be able to fulfil his intention to establish a new party formation, the party in which he has recently participated is quite confidently marching towards disintegration. After the withdrawal of Likoudis, the parliamentary group of Democratic Left remains with 10 members out from the 17 seats won in the parliamentary elections in May 2012.
The centrifugal forces in the party were put into motion immediately after the decision of leader Fotis Kouvelis to withdraw from the coalition government, the cause for it being the closure of state broadcaster ERT. The internal party bickering began immediately afterwards and, within a year, several members and leading cadres left Democratic Left.
In recent months, one of the main reasons has been the fact that the leadership has openly demonstrated its sympathy for SYRIZA. It is noteworthy that the party was founded in 2010, as soon as Alexis Tsipras won a victory over Fotis Kouvelis in the elections for SYRIZA president. Then he left the party along with several other former members of SYRIZA and founded Democratic Left.
Four years later, its existence is significantly threatened and its leader is discredited. In this situation, it is interesting that Kouvelis is considered as one of those who will probably occupy the post of Greece’s next President. Some publications indicate that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Evangelos Venizelos will probably nominate him as a compromise in order for the present Parliament to elect the President without early elections.
At the same time, the turmoil inside the Democratic Left party is continuing as the auditors of the public administration have revealed that the husband of party deputy Maria Yianakaki has had a successful career, including as a teacher at the National School of Government Administration, on the basis of a fake certificate from the London School of Economics. In the local elections that took place earlier this year Yianakaki was a candidate for governor in Attica on the part of Democratic Left.
Following the media fuss, Yianakaki issued a message saying she was not aware of this fact, and that, having being informed of it she has not requested any protection as a party member. She also states that she expects her husband to bear the punishment provided by law and, according to a comment in "To Vima" newspaper, the disclosure has shocked her so much that she has filed for divorce.
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