The President of PASOK Fofi Gennimata decided to expel Leonidas Grigoakos from the parliamentary group of the Democratic Alignment over his recent comments regarding the election of Kyriakos Mitsotakis as president of New Democracy.
In an interview on SKAI, Mr. Grigorakos claimed that Mrs. Gennimata’s claim that ‘an abyss’ separates PASOK and New Democracy was hyperbolic, adding that the two parities were in the same government up until a year ago. Mr. Grigorakos commented that the election of Mr. Mitsotakis was ‘positive’ and argued that unless PASOK ‘leaves its mark’ it will be ‘at risk’.
Following the expulsion of Mr. Grigorakos, the Democratic Alignment issued a statement stressing that the alliance does not aim to become the ‘back up’ of SYRIZA or New Democracy and that anyone thinking so has no place in the parliamentary group. The statement also underlined that Mr. Grigorakos’ statements undermined the unity of the Democratic Alignment.
Mr. Grigorakos later responded via Twitter that the “authoritarian decision” to expel him from the parliamentary group harkened back to practices of the past and lamented that “the fragmented center-left will find its political voice against uneducated leaders”.
