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Two days ago, the "Folders" show on the Greek Sky TV broadcast an interview with the former leader of the Greek Left and founder of the party, which today is called SYRIZA and is about to win the elections on 17 June. Leonidas Kirkos died in 2011 at the age of 87 and a year before that, he had supported in a letter the disaffiliation of a group of deputies from SYRIZA, who had immediately established the Democratic Left.

The interview was recorded 2 1/2 years ago on condition that it would be shown after his death. A man who experienced many difficult situations talks about the violence, the Civil War, the excesses and the importance of consensus and explains what the widely discussed today Greek Left actually is.

"The new constitution should be based on the position that democracy requires consensus. Nowadays, democracy is ailing and we want to have consensus, the culture of consensus must first be introduced. This cannot happen among irreconcilable people. "Bravo, hooray". What are you talking about, brother? Consensus is a part of life. The question is not whether we need it but that it is above everything."

Leonidas Kirkos was born in a highly political family in 1924. His father Michalis was involved in Greek politics for years, first as a minister of the People's Party, then as a managing member of the National Liberation Front (EAM). Their home was a place of political discussions and Leonidas was not late in starting his political activity. He joined the communist National Panhellenic Organization of Youth (EPON), which was the youth organization to EAM. His friendship with Andreas Papandreou, who was six years older, dates back to that time. "He often came to our home. He was a very close friend of my brother Takis, because they were both members of the same political company."

His life was marked by some of the most important and decisive events in modern Greek history. After the liberation of Athens from German occupation, people went out in the streets and celebrated. George Papandreou returned six days later and delivered his famous speech in Syntagma Square. Leonidas Kirkos, aged 20, was somewhere in the sea of ​​listeners. He remembered how, after many interruptions, George Papandreou told the cherished phrase, "We believe in people power."

But the situation rapidly changed and the Civil War exploded soon after that. The government of George Papandreou sided with Britain against the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), which was the armed body of EAM. Violence on the streets of Athens was growing and the number of victims on both sides was alarmingly increasing. Seeing that no more time should be lost, Winston Churchill arrived surprisingly at Christmas to negotiate the end of the Civil War. He believed that the issue could be settled by political means and therefore, he met with the leaders of all political parties. The meetings did not have any effect. According to Leonidas Kirkos, the great opportunity for the Left was lost irretrievably then. "We did not realize that the balance of forces was such that there was no possibility of reversing. The meeting with Churchill was a real chance that we lost."  

Then, the British troops began an attack against ELAS. The battle of Athens was lost and thousands of armed young men were forced to leave the city and head to the mountain. Leonidas Kirkos was with them. The clash ended with the signing of the Treaty of Varkiza on 12 February 1945 and returning the weapon by EAM-ELAS.

Several months later, Leonidas Kirkos returned to Athens and to the benches of the Medical School, which he did not graduate from anyway. He was already known as an active left politician and therefore, he was subject to multiple political persecution, arrests and exile on the island of Makronisos. After returning from there, he and his associates faced two options: Either to flee into the newly established socialist republics in Eastern Europe, or to join the Democratic Army, which was still fighting in the mountains. At that time, the only way to the mountain was through Yugoslavia and Italy. Kirkos chose this way in early 1948. He, Manolis Glezos and their other followers hid in the hold of a ship, but a day later, they were seized by port authorities after the captain of the ship betrayed them. They were sentenced to death but the sentence was completely repealed thanks to Manolis Glezos, who got the protection of the Pope in Rome, Charles de Gaulle and other personalities from all over Europe.

In 1951, Leonidas Kirkos and his other followers founded the Unified Democratic Left (EDA), which was the largest legal left party at the time. In 1961, he was a deputy from EDA, which existed until 1974. His old acquaintance, Andreas Papandreou, returned then to Greece, but the majority of EDA members were distant to him. "Is it a threat or an opportunity for cooperation? It was the "stone" that upset the apple cart. With all my power and the influence I could exercise, I tried not to allow a split, although Andreas was the missing during the occupation." Leonidas Kirkos persuaded his fellows in EDA that a well-intended approach was necessary for a possible future cooperation with the "new factor". "Later they blamed me for it."

Kirkos met him, but the meeting was never repeated, and no political issues were discussed at it because of Andreas Papandreou’s reluctance to do so.

Meanwhile, a new politician appeared on the political horizon - Konstantinos Mitsotakis, who was also trying to get in touch with the left. "To be accurate, I have to say that Mitsotakis was perfect at that time. He had met with the leadership of the Communist Party, which was abroad, and his role in Crete was positive during the Civil War. Therefore, there was a friendly atmosphere between us."

Leonidas Kirkos had understood that they were in the same political area with Andreas Papandreou and tried to convince him that it was necessary to establish a permanent and stable connection. Soon, however, he found out that their relationships were more formal than substantial. "I cannot say that we had any influence upon him. He made plans without including us in them. It was clear that we needed his support but he wanted to control us."

Leonidas Kirkos was the only one who felt the danger of imposing a military dictatorship in 1967 and wrote for this purpose that it was necessary to form a broad front against the junta. In an interview, he said that Moscow had no idea of what was going on in Greece. On the contrary, Andreas Papandreou received information from the U.S. Embassy in Athens and he was hiding, doing nothing to prevent the imposition of dictatorship.

One of the first captured on the evening of 21 April 1967 was Leonidas Kirkos, who spent in prison five of the seven years of dictatorship. This was also the period of tense relations within the Communist Party, which had been illegal since the Civil War and therefore, its headquarters were in Bucharest. Its members, who were in Greece, began to openly express their disagreement with the orders coming from abroad. "The split started with the important issue of where the centre issuing the directives was - in Greece or abroad. And who was running things: EDA, which had full control in the country or the people, who were abroad and obviously had no idea what was happening in Greece, as they learned about things only from newspapers and with significant delay." The plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece met in Budapest in February 1968. Some members who were in Greece had not been invited to the meeting. Furthermore, some old members disaffiliated and formed an internal Communist Party of Greece. At that time, Kirkos was in prison and was shocked. Then, he tried to interfere to make reorganization for fear of splitting and its impact in the fight against the military junta.

The students’ movement, reaching its height with the entry of tanks into the Athens Polytechnic School, caught the left unawares. "We were all against the anarchist appeals that had appeared there and tried to inform the participants that they could not deliver results. The issue was to remove the junta, not the crap like "down with capitalism" or "down with the state", which anarchists were blaring forth at the Polytechnic School. Ultimately, this policy prevailed."

After the fall of the dictatorship in Greece, Konstantinos Karamanlis returned and took over the country, launching a new era in Greek history. According to Leonidas Kirkos, this happened "in the absence of the people" because in meeting Karamanlis, there was no one to say anything different.

In the elections in November 1974, the Communist Party became legal for the first time since the Civil War. It was also the first time after the split, when the two Communist parties joined forces and participated in the elections together. At that time, the leader of the Communist Party was Harilaos Florakis and Leonidas Kirkos was one of the leading members of the internal Communist Party of Greece. New Democracy of Constantinos Karamanlis won the elections in a landslide. In the next elections in 1977, the differences were so great that the two communist parties participated separately again. In 1981, the situation in the left changed again after Andreas Papandreou had won the elections, "borrowing" many of its slogans and much of its electorate. "Andreas Papandreou supported the Communist Party and did not support us. I would say that he was afraid of our ability to influence the masses with our policy whereas he wanted to have complete control over them."

In the 1985 elections, only one deputy from Kirkos’party was elected. Then, he decided it was time for a change. He decided to remove the word "Communist" from the name of the party, hoping to form a broad left political force. The rest, however, disagreed and during a Congress in 1986, the internal Communist Party of Greece had also split.

In April 1987, Leonidas Kirkos founded the Greek Left. As its leader, he was trying to reduce the polarization between the two major parties. For that purpose, he invited their leaders to one of the congresses of the party. Konstantinos Mitsotakis responded to the invitation, but socialist Andreas Papandreou did not accept it. Leonidas Kirkos would make more attempts to reach consensus, but they were all doomed to failure. He said in the interview that during one of their meetings, President Konstantinos Karamanlis told him that his position would not prevail because he was "at the wrong time, in the wrong place and with the wrong party."

Shortly before the elections in 1989, Leonidas Kirkos and the chairman of the Communist Party Harilaos Florakis, had decided after years of political antagonism to take a big step and join forces in a new party - the Coalition of the Left and Progress. The winner of the elections was New Democracy, but it did not have the majority to form a separate cabinet. Therefore, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, Harilaos Florakis and Leonidas Kirkos decided to form a coalition government with Prime Minister Tzanis Tzanetakis. It had the sole task of organizing the next elections held in November of that year. The three politicians met in the house of Constantine Mitsotakis and this meeting has remained in history. "Nothing special happened there. We were told the conditions of cooperation. We stated that we should write programming statements, and they would ensure their implementation. Indeed, I wrote the text and Tzanis Tzanetakis did not correct anything in it."

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."