Apostolos Gletsos

MP Sokratis Famellos has been elected the new leader of the left-wing SYRIZA party; official final results are still pending.

The new leader of SYRIZA

Sokratis Famelos, according to the biography on his website, was born in 1966 in Athens, but grew up and has lived in Thessaloniki since 1970.

Polls Open Nationwide
Today marks the first round of SYRIZA Progressive Alliance’s internal elections to choose the party’s new President. Voting is taking place in 400 polling stations across Greece.

Wednesday's TV debate between the candidates for the new SYRIZA leader did not garner the same attention as the corresponding debate held by PASOK, nor did it demonstrate the same level of seriousness.

With deep dives into the SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance’s governmental past, plenty of “friendly fire” among comrades, and repeated references to their return to opposition benches, the two-plus-hour debate between the four contenders for the party’s presidency unfolded. From the very first moments, the participants enthusiastically plunged into the battle of impressions.

The four candidates for the leadership of left-wing SYRIZA took part Wednesday in a debate largely devoid of drama on state TV ERT.

Everything That Happened in the Debate: Renationalizations, Prostitutes, and Sharp Words About Kasselakis

The debate among Apostolos Gletsos, Pavlos Polakis, Sokratis Famellos, and Nikolas Farantouris, candidates for the presidency of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, unfolded as a largely lackluster event. It lacked strong programmatic proposals or groundbreaking ideas.

With conflicting results to the end and in an episodic manner, the election of Syriza’s Syriza Progressive Alliance’s first, powerful internal party crash test, as the majority and “Casselistas” faced off in the most decisive ballot box since that of Alexis Tsipras’s succession in September 2023.

SYRIZA's political secretariat said on Wednesday that Stefanos Kasselakis has been barred from the race for the party's leadership. The decision leaves Apostolos Gletsos, Pavlos Polakis, Sokratis Famellos and Nikos Farandouris vying for the spot.

A group of twelve members of SYRIZA‘s Central Committee, aligned with Stefanos Kasselakis, has referred Olga Gerovasili, Kostas Zachariadis, and Apostolos Gletsos to the party’s Ethics Committee due to their recent “extreme” statements.