SYRIZA congress: Winners and losers - Kasselakis, the committee Pappas and Tsipras

Kasselakis gained the political time he was looking for to reach the European elections, and for the time being the winners of the SYRIZA Congress are Nikos Pappas and those who turned their backs on Alexis Tsipras.

The bloc of candidates alliedewith Tsipras may have seemed divided - for and against intra-party elections - in the process of the Congress, however all, both the side of Stefanos Kasselakis and the side of Nikos Pappas, declared in all tones that they won the Congress and the political battle.

From the moment Mr. Kasselakis' impeachment process first got under way early last week, culminating in the Thursday-to-Friday consultations, Mr. Kasselakis has worked to find the necessary political time he needs, amid intense intra-party contention, to reach the June polls.

This is emphasized by officials of the Political Secretariat who heard Mr. Kasselakis drop the christening bomb on the base for the first time last Tuesday.

The president of SYRIZA saw the development of the initiative of Nikos Pappas to submit a proposal for the annulment of the elections and did not attempt to block it at any stage of the three-day works. The Pappas proposal was actually adopted as a vote of confidence for the president by the delegates and Mr. Kasselakis was "rebaptized" by order of the Congress.

The looming defeat in the Euro-elections would perhaps be unmanageable if somehow the new president had not received a renewal of the confidence of the members.

No blank check

Faced with the majority, Mr. Kasselakis sacrificed three of his goals, party executives observe.

First and foremost on March 10, when he hoped to make the first timely organizational changes.

To get the blank check until 2027, even to change the Central Committee and the Political Secretariat.

The initiative to collect signatures before the Congress even started in order to elect the highest political body now and not after the European elections was abandoned.

He bested Alexis Tsipras

In the wake of the great conflict, however, many speak openly about an important victory of the new president, this one against the "former", as they call Alexis Tsipras in a scathing tone, whom Mr. Kasselakis saw from the first moment as his essential opponent in the third phase of the split of SYRIZA.

This opinion is based on the fact that the delegates turned their backs not only on Mr. Kasselakis, who showed that he wanted the polls, but also on Mr. Tsipras, who pointed in this direction.

What does the Tsipras side say and the limit to Kasselakis

However, there is also the opposite reading, of those who see Alexis Tsipras as having now ended any connection with Mr. Kasselakis.

Both institutionally - former and current president - and politically, as many blame the new president on Mr. Tsipras, the two are now considered rivals, if not completely estranged from each other.

Alexis Tsipras is estimated by SYRIZA executives to have been freed from the "burden" of being directly connected to the person of Mr. Kasselakis. At the same time, many in SYRIZA point out that Mr. Tsipras is freed from now on to continue even more distanced from SYRIZA under his new leadership.

On the other hand, and Mr. Kasselakis will no longer be able to use and invoke the former president with the glibness he did until now, noted a leading member of the party.

Therefore, Mr. Tsipras will now be able to feel that at this stage a possible defeat will not be ascribed to him, as he took care to show the solution in time to reverse the course.

"Everyone will be judged by the results" noted Mr. Tsipras, now pointing directly at all those who did not choose the pure solution of appealing to the verdict of the base and party members.

Commissioner Nikos Pappas

Among those who will be asked to take responsibility for a defeat on June 9 is Nikos Pappas, who is also considered the undisputed winner of the Conference.

The prevalence of his proposal to avoid the "clean solution" and with his proposal being the first to be voted against the president's proposal imposed the operation of the Executive Office on Mr. Kasselakis by order of the Congress.

Along with Mr. Pappas, Pavlos Polakis and those MPs who supported the proposal equally share the responsibility of a defeat