The 19th Party congress of Communist Party of Greece (KKE) was held from April 11 to 14th. The session of the 19th
Congress of the KKE began with a presentation of the report of the
Central Committee by the General Secretary of the Central Committee,
Aleka Papariga.
The 19th
Congress of the Communist Party took place after a 4-month
pre-congress process, during which the Theses were discussed in the
organizations of the Party and KNE and with thousands of workers. 96.8% of the party members votes in favour of the Theses and draft Programme of the Party, 1.65% against, blank votes 1.55%. 97.3% of the party members votes for the draft Statutes in the PBOs, 1.21% against, blank votes 1.49%. The results of the discussion in KNE are the following. 98.9% votes in favour, 1.1% votes against and blank votes.
The discussions and the votes for the decisions of the 19th Congress of the KKE were held in an atmosphere of ideological-political unity and after substantial deliberations. 77 delegates
spoke at the Congress (the time allocated for each speech was 12
minutes). The Congress unanimously approved the new Party Programme, the
new Statutes and the Political Resolution of the Congress.
In
addition, the report and closing speech of the Central Committee of the
KKE was adopted unanimously, while the report and closing speech of the
Central Auditing Committee (CAC) was approved with one vote against and
one blank vote.
The work of the 19th
Congress of the KKE was completed with the election of the new Central
Committee, which is comprised of 63 comrades (instead of 77 who had been
elected at the 18th Congress) and the new Central AC which is comprised of 7 comrades (instead of 5).
The CC in its first session elected Dimitris Koutsoumpas as the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE. It should be noted that the outgoing GS of the CC of the KKE, Aleka Papariga, was elected as a member of the CC of the KKE.
He was born in Lamia on the 10th
of August 1955. He is married and has a daughter. His family were
militants in the EAM national resistance, some of them were executed by
the Nazi occupation troops and by the extraordinary military courts in
the period of the civil war, others were imprisoned and exiled. His
father, Apostolis Koutsoumpas, a member of the KKE, was arrested in 1945
in Larisa, tried, imprisoned and exiled for 8 years.
Dimitris
Koutsoumpas graduated from High School in June 1973, took the exams and
entered the Law Department of the University of Athens. While he
studied, he worked in different jobs in order to meet the costs of his
studies. On his arrival in Athens, he came into contact with the illegal
organization of KNE, he participated in the events in the Polytechnic
in November 1973 and became a member of anti-EFEE and KNE in December
1973, working in illegal conditions until the fall of the dictatorship
in the summer of 1974. He became a member of the KKE in December 1974.
He was sent to work in the party in the summer of 1975 in the
organization of Eastern Central Greece and Euboia as a member of the
regional bureau of KNE. He was a delegate at the 1st Congress of KNE.
In
the Autumn of 1977 he moved from working in KNE to working exclusively
in the party, as a secretary of a sectoral organization and later as the
secretary of the Prefectural Organization of Boiotia. In 1979 he became
a member of the Regional Bureau of Eastern Central Greece and Euboia,
with various responsibilities, for work in the labour and trade union
movement, responsible for the political guidance of the Prefectural
Organizations of Boiotia, Fthiotida, Fokida, Evrytania. Later on he
became secretary of the Regional Committee of Eastern Central Greece and
Euboia, apart from a period of 21 months when he carried out his
military service in Messolonghi, Komotini, and Limnos.
He was elected to the Central Committee of the KKE at the party’s 12th
Congress in May 1987. In the split of 1991, as the secretary of Eastern
Central Greece and Euboia and member of the CC, together with other
comrades he struggled to defend the party, its principles, its
worldview, against the splitting opportunist group that went to
Synaspismos.
At the 13th
Congress, he was again elected to the CC and its Secretariat
responsible for politically guiding party organizations, while after
August 1991, immediately after the split, he took on the responsibility
for the CC’s Press Office.
In December 1991 at the 14th
Congress, he was elected to the PB of the CC, responsible for the Press
Office, Culture, and later “902” (TV and radio), until the floods of
1994, when he took on the responsibility for the organizations of
Thessalonica, Central Macedonia, Western Macedonia, and Eastern
Macedonia and Thrace.
At the 15th Congress (May 1996) he was elected to the PB and became the Director of “Rizospastis”, a responsibility he held for 10 years At the 16th Congress (February 2000) and the 17th
Congress (February 2005) he was re-elected to the PB and took on the
responsibility for the International Relations of the party. At the 18th Congress (February 2009) he took on the responsibility of the Secretariat of the CC on behalf of the PB. At the 19th Congress (April 2013) he was elected General Secretary of the CC of the KKE.