The central committee of the Greek leftist party Syriza voted on Sunday to censure their leader Stefanos Kasselakis. 163 members agreed with the censure motion with 123 expressing their support for the leader.
The decision means Syriza will hold an extraordinary party congress within the next three months. Members and friends of the party may have to vote to elect a new leader just over a year after Kasselakis won the election. It is not clear, in this case, whether he would stand for election again.
Controversial MP and former alternate health minister Pavlos Polakis has announced his intention to run against Kasselakis. Additionally, MEP Nikos Farantouris has indicated that he is considering a bid for the party’s leadership.
Voting on the censure motion against Kasselakis, which was submitted by 100 Central Committee members on Saturday, began at 10:00 AM at a hotel in downtown Athens, where the two-day Central Committee meeting is taking place.
Syriza has been facing trouble and seems to be nearing collapse, with party MPs vehemently divided over the leadership of Kasselakis. Opinion polls show that the party which governed Greece in the 2015-2019 period is now on single-digit figures.
The party leader is taking fire from many members of the Syriza central committee for his autocratic behavior, accused of treating the leftist party as his own property.
A year of turmoil in Syriza after Kasselakis win
It was August 2023 when most Greeks returned from summer vacation to find a man who came out of the blue—actually from the US—to claim the Syriza presidency. Less than a little over a month prior to this, Alexis Tsipras had resigned from the leftist party leadership, and several candidates were waiting to claim his seat.
Kasselakis looked like the most unlikely person to qualify. He was coming from a wealthy family with businesses in the US, had worked for Goldman Sachs, and had no experience whatsoever with politics, much less with the Greek Left.
Yet, his air of confidence, approach to the common people, and his slogan “I am the only one who can beat Mitsotakis” jelled with many Syriza voters. His visits to schools, hospitals, and impoverished neighborhoods, and his friendly talks with random people he met on the street made him a popular figure in the media.
After all, leftist voters had seen the charismatic Alexis Tsipras lose three elections in a row to Mitsotakis—two parliamentary elections and one municipal. It was time to try someone new, someone with such a friendly approach that had very little to do with the typical Greek politician.
In the grassroots election for the Syriza presidency in September, the rookie politician won the seat relatively easily from opponent Efi Achtsioglou, former Minister for Labor, Social Insurance and Social Solidarity in the Tsipras administration.
However, instead of staying with the party and following Kasselakis and his (vague) program, the losing Syriza faction accused him of not having the proper credentials to lead.
