SYRIZA spokesman: Party's image as reflected in opinion polls is 'troubling'

Low opinion poll numbers related to SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance are troubling the party, its spokesman Pausanias Papageorgiou told Skai on Friday.

"It is truly something that is not just troubling, but it places an entire party, its candidates for leadership, its officials and all remaining supporters before their obligations and the issues that need to be discussed," Papageorgiou said. "Therefore, we must very quickly, very clearly, and very effectively start talking again with the greatest number of the public possible."

Regarding the candidates for SYRIZA's leadership, the main opposition party spokesman said that Pavlos Polakis had filed his official candidacy file, Sokratis Famellos was in the process of doing so, and former leader Stefanos Kasselakis had declared his presence but not filed his candicacy yet. The deadline for a candidate to file is October 24, he noted.

Papageorgiou denied SYRIZA was falling apart, saying that if that were the case, the internal discussion about how the party can get to the day after would not be taking place. "If the opinion poll results right now show a specific picture, this does not relate to disintegration, it relates to transition and the anxiety of citizens as to whether it will recover," he underlined.

What concerns the main opposition party instead is to bring to end discussion among opposition and progressive parties, in order to be able to highlight specific issues. "Because we are seeing that the government, as these [issues] progress and accumulate, is not resolving some," he added.

Asked if there was a possibility the candidates for leadership would hold a debate, the spokesman expressed the hope it would, as it would "provide an opportunity to candidates to express their opinion before a very large audience."