In a session full of turmoil, sharp argumentation and boycott efforts, the members of the Central Committee of SYRIZA voted on Saturday against the candidacy of recently deposed leader Stefanos Kasselakis in the upcoming election for the party leadership.
A total of 151 members were accredited during the meeting, 136 voted against Kasselakis’ candidacy.
At the same time, his supporters and other officials who deemed the exclusion “ divisive” had refused to collect accreditation badges to prevent a quorum and the decision from being made.
At the end of the session, the voting turned against the former leader and in this sense Kasselakis will not be included in the nominations for the leadership of SYRIZA, which closes on October 24.
The question now is whether the subsequent Congress on November 7-8 will decide differently and recognize Kasselakis as a candidate, as he and his supporters believe.
In a vote of no confidence Kasselakis was removed from his position as SYRIZA president by the majority of the Central Committee in September.
However, he has refused to accept the decision and he keeps insisting that the “basis of the party” – that is not the committee or any other party organ – wants him as a leader.
At the meeting on Saturday there was also a proposal to expel him from SYRIZA, but this was not included in the voting.
Stefanos Kasselakis came practically out of the blue, without any political experience or affiliation with the left-wing. He was was elected president in September 2023 after former president and ex prime minister Alexis Tsipras finally decided to withdraw from the post. it was also Tsipras who introduced the diaspora Greek, Kasselakis, to the party.
Soon after his election, the new president began to stir the left-wing party trying to get rid of historical members. This led to division with several MPs to leave SYRIZA and organize in a new party, the New Left.
The whole circus with and around Kasselakis has ultimately led many SYRIZA voters to turn their back to the party and recent public opinion polls show it in 5th position with just 6% support.
If SYRIZA loses another 4 to 5 MPs, it will also lose its status of major opposition party in the Greek Parliament.
Party friends and foes are convinced that it’s a matter of months until the left-wing party that governed Greece in the hard times of the bailout agreements will return to 3%, maximum 4% as before 2015.
“The party has lost its identity and I’m fed up with all these fights and arguments that make the party look ridiculous,” a friend who has been voting for SYRIZA for decades has told me. He is now considering himself as “politically orphan.”
If you live in Greece, watch TV and read the media, you can experience Live the Decline and Fall of the Greek Left.
Although I really don’t mind who will be Syriza’s part leader, it’s a joke not to allow Kaselakis to enter the elections after he was elected last year by the party members. The central committee should step down if they don’t agree with the elected party leader.