Main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Stefanos Kasselakis commented on the recent departures of senior party members and MPs in a social media post on Friday, accusing them of not leaving over ideological differences "but because they did not win the internal party elections".
"I want to share with you some thoughts about yesterday's unpleasant events. Because you are SYRIZA," he said, addressing SYRIZA voters, while noting that the MPs who left the party had not been elected on a personal ticket but "because, in very difficult times, you voted for SYRIZA and Alexis Tsipras."
"Personally, my conscience is clear that I did everything [I could]," he added, noting that he had repeatedly offered his rivals their choice of positions in the party but they had not been "primed for unity".
"Yesterday, we had the first metapolitical breakup in the history of the country... People who split off not for ideological reasons but because they didn't win the internal party elections," he said.
"With my hand on my heart, if Effie Achtsioglou had come to me before the elections and told me 'this office is my team's dream and either I'm elected president or I leave,' I would have backed out. I would have withdrawn my candidacy for the sake of unity," Kasselakis said.
He concluded by noting that "SYRIZA was and will remain one. The legacy of Alexis Tsipras and ourselves, who continue his work. For a modern Left that respects its past, that is proud of its governmental term but does not hesitate to admit mistakes. For a modern Left with people who are here not because they ended up here but because they want to belong and fight here."
"For a modern Left of renewal, of new cadres who will rise up from within society itself, without having to be vetted by supposed owners. For a modern Left that is a united fist, where all fingers are equal. A real modern Left. Unity starts now, because unity is you," he added.
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