Yota Pulou: I guess I will end up at Stefanos Kasselakis’ party – It is possible to gather 10 MPs

Ready to join his new party is Yota Pulou, which on Thursday (21.11. 24) announced its independence by . “I appreciate that it is possible to gather 10 MPs to Stephen Kasselakis’ new party, stressed the former SYRIZA MP, speaking to ERT on Friday morning (22.11.24). “I said that I would give all my powers so that the conference would take place, that there would be no exclusions and that I would be the last to close the door at Syriza, but fighting for the unity of the party. So what happened next? There was a conference – parody, A conference that in addition to the exclusions of nominations – and I am also referring to Stefanos Kasselakis – which was no longer tolerated by my ethics is the exclusion of the conferences,” continued Yota Pulou. “Because you obviously all realize, all of us, that you should be able to look in the eyes of the participants, the Boetians in this regard, where of the 34 participants only managed four to enter the conference halls. And I say to the halls because they didn’t enter the main hall. They entered the side rooms, those that had no but no contact. They can neither speak nor vote. So I was out with them too,” he pointed out. “I couldn’t imagine that as a Member of Parliament – I remind you that I didn’t even have an accreditation card – that I would be in the conference area when the party’s members were outside waiting for hours to come. And you know what? We all realized that something went wrong with the conference, that there were problems, that there were discrimination, that there was fraud. On the question of representation, however, I did not hear an apology the next day,” Yota Pulou said. And he added: “I would expect – and there were other colleagues who said that – that the next day everyone thought that they did everything well, perfectly, that nothing happened, that they isolated the party’s enemies and I could not even join myself in the bullies who were outside the conference and hindered the conference, its operation or its start. So that’s what I expected, if anything. An apology from the party bodies, the party’s collective bodies. Instead they also rejoiced that they did perfect.” “The voters in the election of the national elections did not vote for a party that does not respect the statute, which operates undemocraticly. At last his great advantage, rights, freedom and democracy were violated by the collective institutions. They certainly did not vote for these in 2019, 2015, or 2023. So I should choose between my own morals. I had said that I had not hidden my criticism of everything that happened at the conference and said that I needed some time so that I could talk to the people and the party,” he noted: “Do you know what is happening in Boeotia? 80 – 90% of the membership base has left. How can I stand in this party? I disagree with you that it is the 5th – 6th place that deprived the main opposition from the Syriza party (…) I am not smiling about this decision, because what concerns me is the collapse of Syriza, not by the role of the main opposition, but by its collapse within society.” “I guess I’ll join the Kasselakis party” For her participation in Stefanos Kasselakis’ new party, she stressed: “I have to answer this dilemma too. I participate and shape or stay and watch and decide. I guess I’m a man of action. I guess I’ll end up in the first (…) There is a song that says “in front I don’t know what to find, but I won’t go back”. So it is better for the unknown and with our participation to turn in one direction. Better in action then than in inaction (…) Any new venture has great difficulties (…) I think it is possible to gather ten MPs in the new party.” While he added, still: “I would be in the party with any choice of president. In my political life I have worked with democratic centralism for too many years, which means that I have always respected the view of the majority, but finally in this area the view of the minority was respected. I therefore believe that those who have defected from party authorities are the comrades who are currently with a moderate majority in the collective bodies that are the minority (…) I don’t appreciate that the story on Syriza of all the players stops here. Unfortunately, I believe that in the next fortnight we will have more departures again, more shocks.” “I accepted any president and would serve the unity of the party. That is not why I left. I did not leave the Parliamentary Group right now because I did not like the President,” he said. “I estimate that there will be independents next week and in the next few days. For me each departure has the same gravity and value – and all together deprive the main opposition,” he concluded.