Galery

1

For this action, Kirkos had become the target of violent attacks by PASOK, especially after a trial against the political scandals against Andreas Papandreou that was running at that time. "Seeing what is happening with scandals nowadays, I see that then, it was just the beginning. But I would like to emphasize that there was no pressure on me from Mitsotakis against Andreas. He behaved perfectly in this case."

Leonidas Kirkos and Harilaos Florakis submitted their resignations from the leadership of the Coalition of the Left and Progress. The trial against Andreas Papandreou, although declared not guilty, cost dearly to the Left and to Leonidas Kirkos himself. By his very death, he could not explain why Andreas Papandreou was not willing to join forces all these years. "My political path was influenced entirely by the idea of ​​unification. It is his fault that the Greek Left remained divided. He refused to understand that we had the unique opportunity to unite. He saw nothing but the conquest of power. And that meant continuous division Right – Anti- right, a fierce hatred to amass our people. Remember the slogan, "Tonight the Right will die – poison for the dog of PASOK". We went back to the era before the military dictatorship. People who had not experienced the dictatorship, but had only heard of it shouted them. Andreas Papandreou was abroad and dreaming how he would organize a new guerrilla movement, a new civil war. Bullshit."

Leonidas Kirkos could not forgive him for the quality of people surrounding him. "Andreas was deeply corrupt. He rejected reasonable people in favour of the corrupt circle. There were valuable people beside him, but he never listened to them. He preferred to have links with criminals."

After 50 years of participation in political life, prisons and exile, Leonidas Kirkos makes a big confession, "I was a regular member of the basis of the Left. I did not have the knowledge and courage to find out what its leaders were, who were standing up like giants before my eyes then. Now, I am terrified when I think of who would govern us if our revolution were successful. They were funny, uneducated people and totally incapable of this."

Despite his mistakes, Leonidas Kirkos has remained in Greek history as the politician who has always strived for consensus and unity and put national interest above the party. "I lost the battle in my own party. Now they think I am right and I want to make them the tail of PASOK. Of course, now my influence is much less than before. But we lost a great opportunity for Greece. We could create a great democratic party to govern with inspiration, not in grocery fashion."

In the end, he stressed, "The big question why disunity has ultimately prevailed remains. History has not yet given an answer to it. It is maybe because this nation is a fan of intransigence. It likes explicit opposition. It wants to say "we" and "you". And we offered something else."

In his dying letter, Leonidas Kirkos left the message, "I'm going. I greet you all. Those of you with whom we were walking along and those of you, who were on the opposite bank. I can only tell you one thing: Clash of ideas, not violence and intolerance. They lead nowhere. Farewell."