Alexis Haritsis

Christos Rammos, head of Greece's independent privacy watchdog ADAE, announced on Monday that he will not run for President of Greece when the term of the current President, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, expires in March 2025.

Rammos had been proposed for the role by New Left, a splinter party from SYRIZA.

The debate on the budget in the House of Representatives turned out to be a foretaste of the new political period ushered in by the advent of 2025, with the Syriza Progressive Alliance emerging unscathed from the vote, but from the benches of what is now the third parliamentary power in the plenary chamber.

A year after splitting from SYRIZA over irreconcilable differences with the party's new leadership under now-ousted Stefanos Kasselakis, New Left, established by 11 influential members of the main opposition's parliamentary group, is holding its inaugural congress in Athens, starting on Thursday.

New Left leader Alexis Haritsis ruled out the possibility of party members rejoining SYRIZA, arguing that main opposition carries "a load of toxicity" and an "absence of political proposals" that cannot be overlooked.

Prominent leftist European Parliament lawmaker Dimitris Papadimoulis announced on Monday he was retiring from politics, after serving twenty years in Brussels. 

"I will continue, far from elected office, to serve the same values ​​as an active citizen," he said in a brief statement posted on his official account on X. 

Some 87 SYRIZA prominent members and MPs sent a joint letter to Kasselakis on Thursday, criticizing his leadership and calling for a united left-wing front against the ruling New Democracy government. 

Greece's main opposition SYRIZA is in for more upheaval, after three cadres announced their intention to quit the party's executive bodies, but not the party itself.

Stefanos Kasselakis, President of SYRIZA, recently posted from the US, outlining his vision for party reform and criticizing his predecessor, Alexis Tsipras, which has created significant tension within the SYRIZA Progressive Alliance

Main leftist opposition leader Stefanos Kasselakis has ruled out any alliance with the SYRIZA splinter group New Left.

"As long as I am president of SYRIZA, there will be no collaboration with the illegitimate New Left group," he said in a post on the X social media platform on Tuesday.

Amid the Gaza crisis, Alexis Haritsis, president of Greece's New Left Party, calls for urgent action, declaring, "The eyes of the world are on martyrized Rafah."

He demands a parliamentary debate on Palestinian recognition, accusing Israel's government of genocide and labeling Greece's silence as complicity, insisting, "Greece must stand on the right side of history."