[D66] ATHENS NOW: AN EXPLOSIVE SITUATION!

[J.N.]

ATHENS NOW: AN EXPLOSIVE SITUATION!
MASS RALLY THIS EVENING IN FRONT OF THE PARLIAMENT!
THE MAJORITY OF SYRIZA'S CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEMBERS REJECT THE AGREEMENT!

1. The discussion in Parliament on the agreement has started and the
vote is expected for late this evening. Tsipras has declared in his
interview to the public broadcast yesterday that the agreement was bad,
that he "didn't believe in it" but, basically that there was no other
solution. He also said that he was not going to jump out of the boat.

2. A strike against the agreement was announced today by the
confederation of civil servants ADEDY. This is the first test on the
social front. The participation in the strike seems rather low but the
real peak is this evening's gathering in front of the Parliament, when
the vote will happen.

3. An impressive wave of statements are issued by Syriza's local and
regional branches rejecting the agreement and calling the leadership to
withdraw it even at the last moment. These statements are vote by
overwhelming majorities and usually near-unanimously. A text rejecting
the agreement has already been signed by an absolute majority of central
committee members. In the last meeting of the political secretariat of
the party only a small minority were in favour of the agreement and for
supporting the government. Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos who
reported on the agreement said that it wasn't politically sustainable.
The secretary of the party, Tassos Koronakis, supported by others, asked
for the government to resign and a "special task" government to be
constituted as a transition to snap elections in November, at the time
of elections in Spain. The Left Platform disagreed with this proposal
explaining that this would mean that Syriza MPs would condone a for
months technocratic cabinet applying austerity and called the government
to withdraw the agreement immediately.

4. The Left Platform annnounced that it will not vote for the agreement
today. In an internal meeting, impressively attended yesterday and
widely reported by the media, Panagiotis Lafazanis (minister and key
spokesperson of the Left Platform) categorically rejected the agreement,
explained that Grexit was the only solution and that the government
should prepare it. The Left Platform will hold a public meeting next
Monday in Athens to present its alternative proposal and called for the
Grexit. The trade-union sector of the party, overwhelmingly controlled
by the Left Platform, is playing a leading role in organizing protests
against the agreement.

(via Stathis Kouvelakis, central committee member of Syriza)