Nikolas Farantouris

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.

The unbridgeable gap that has turned the “87” of the Syriza Progressive Alliance into foreign bodies within the Syriza Progressive Alliance into the “87” of the “Tsipras Guard” and the “Kasselistas” under the former party chairman, Stefanos Kasselakis underlined in the most emphatic way the festive three days despite the short break, starting from Thessaloniki.

Turning point for unity and perspective SYRIZA Progressive Alliance from now on is today’s meeting of the party’s Central Committee, where all internal party camps are expected to arrive at 11 am with a lot of suspicion about the future of the process of electing a new leadership.

With a difference of 58 days—on October 13 and December 1—PASOK and SYRIZA will elect their leadership.

The political landscape, shaped by the Prime Minister’s announcements at the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) and developments within SYRIZA and PASOK, is captured in a major GPO poll presented on Star’s main news broadcast.

SYRIZA’s top officials are set to face the new reality following Stefanos Kasselakis’s removal from the leadership of SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, as the Political Secretariat meets today at 4 p.m. Tensions remain high within the party.

The dismissal of Stefanos Kasselakis from the position of SYRIZA president by an enhanced majority of the Central Committee (163 yes and 123 no and null/blank votes) leads the main opposition party into new internal elections within a year. At the same time, it brings Alexis Tsipras back to the forefront, who played a role in both the election of Kasselakis and his removal a year later.