Veteran SYRIZA MP criticizes party structure, says more needs to be done to convince voters

SYRIZA has failed to come up with a solid explanation of how it aims to finance its pledges, Manolis Glezos, a lawmaker with the leftist opposition party and a WWII resistance fighter said Wednesday, while voicing criticism of the party’s transformation into a “monolithic” group.

“People ask me where the money will come from, but I am afraid that our answer is not convincing,” Glezos told Vima radio station adding that the party, which is neck-to-neck with coalition leaders New Democracy in most opinion polls, must hammer out specific proposals on Greece’s future.

In the same interview, Glezos criticized the leadership’s decision earlier this year to scrap its former structure as a collection of smaller left-wing and extreme left-wing groupings and refashion itself as a single party.

“Manolis Glezos is not keeping a distance from SYRIZA. He is keeping a distance from those who want to turn SYRIZA into a monolithic party,” the veteran lawmaker said.

In a controversial decision earlier this month, Glezos abstained from a Parliamentary vote on suspending state funding for political parties accused of criminal activities, a measure targeting the Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn.