Stefanos Kasselakis

Main opposition SYRIZA has been plunged into turmoil again, after the proposal by its leader Stefanos Kasselakis to hold a referendum about the expulsion of prominent dissenters from the party appears to have backfired as senior figures that had so far backed him expressed their disagreement.

SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis has called on the main opposition party to hold an internal referendum on the expulsion of "four party members who brutally insulted all of us."

Former SYRIZA secretary Panos Skourletis has become the latest high-ranking official to depart from the main opposition party. 

In a statement released on Friday, he outlined the party's mistakes since 2019, which he said led to the heavy defeats in this year's elections, while slamming newly-elected leader Stefanos Kasselakis for distancing SYRIZA from its left-wing roots.

The results of the first opinion poll after the regional and local elections capture the mood of a public that is watching, in real time, the disintegration of the party that is the main opposition and which rose to government in 2015 with promises and commitments that could not be implemented (but even if they had been they would have been disastrous for the country).

Top officials and hundreds of members of the main opposition party published a document on Thursday in which they raised further concerns about the direction SYRIZA has taken since the elections of its new leader, Stefanos Kasselakis, as turmoil within the party continues to brew. 

Since Stefanos Kasselakis was elected as the new leader of Syriza, the party has been riven with internal strife and tensions.

Since his return from the United States, Stefanos Kasselakis, the new leader of SYRIZA, has aimed to project a more distinct and serious image compared to that immediately following his election, which had been consistently highlighted on morning television programs.

A fair and just European Pact on Migration and Asylum would mean "finding a way for Greece to not be bearing the brunt [of the migration influx] as a first-arrival country," SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis has said in Brussels.

Former SYRIZA minister Giorgos Stathakis has signaled his departure from the main opposition party, leveling accusations against the new party leader Stefanos Kasselakis and his close circle of advisors for their "anti-leftist hysteria."

SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis met with PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis on Monday. The first one-on-one meeting of the two opposition party leaders was held at Kasselakis' initiative, at Androulakis' office in Parliament.