No to Zelensky: Why the KKE will not attend Zelensky’s address to Greek Parliament

Athens, 31/03/2022

Mister President,

Regarding the invitation and speech of the President of Ukraine, V. Zelenskiy, at a special sitting of the Hellenic Parliament on Thursday 7 April 7 2022, we would like to inform you that the KKE Parliamentary Group does not intend to participate in it.

The condemnation of the unacceptable invasion and the imperialist war waged by Russia on the territory of Ukraine and, at the same time, the solidarity with the people of Ukraine have nothing to do with any support to President V. Zelenskiy. This particular meeting bears exactly such characteristics, as Zelenskiy is part of the problem. He is head of a reactionary government that has aligned with the US-NATO-EU camp, which is also responsible for the war and the suffering of the people of Ukraine.

The Zelenskiy government —like the previous ones— emerged under conditions of extortion against the Ukrainian people, especially after the 2014 coup, with the direct intervention of the Euro-Atlantic camp. It is responsible for:

– The violation of workers’ and people’s rights, for supporting and cooperating with fascist shock troops, such as the Azov battalion which has been organically integrated into the Ukrainian army, the police, and all state structures.

– Legitimizing Nazi propaganda and rehabilitating Nazi collaborators in the Second World War as “national heroes” (!).

– Banning the activities of the Communist Party of Ukraine, persecuting communists and other militants, arbitrarily arresting and imprisoning the Secretary and other cadres of the Communist Youth of Ukraine, whose lives are currently in danger. We remind you that the Communist Party of Ukraine has appealed to the European Court of Justice against this decision, while a Commission of the European Parliament had found a serious violation of human rights by the Ukrainian government in Eastern Ukraine.

– Banning 11 more opposition parties.

– The violation of the rights of minorities living in Ukraine, including the Greek one.

– At the moment, one of the vice-presidents of the Hellenic Parliament, Giorgos Lambroulis, MP of the KKE from the city of Larissa, as well as other KKE cadres, such as former MEP Sotiris Zarianopoulos and Giorgos Maganas have been declared personae non gratae by the Ukrainian government, because they had visited Ukraine in the past to express their solidarity with the Ukrainian people and the persecuted communists.

Therefore, the KKE Parliamentary Group will not take part in the upcoming special sitting of the Parliament in which President Zelensky will speak. This is the greatest sign of solidarity with the Ukrainian people, who, in order to emerge victorious, must dispose of both the Russian invasion and the Zelensky-type governments that drag them to the slaughterhouse of imperialist competition and wars.

We would take the same stance if the President of Russia Putin, the President of the USA Biden, etc. were invited to speak in the Parliament. We would like to remind you that representatives of the KKE have adopted a similar stance in cases where a political representative of an anti-popular government was “honoured” by a Municipal Council, a Regional Council or other state institution (for instance, when the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin was awarded the key to the city by the Municipal Council of Athens).”