Syriza

SYRIZA continues to lose members at its grassroots level, with resignations escalating ahead of the upcoming elections for a new party leader scheduled for this Sunday, according to sources close to Stefanos Kasselakis’ team.

New spatial arrangements and office moves are taking place within the Greek Parliament, following the latest split in SYRIZA after the defection of Theodora Tzakri and Giota Poulou. As a result, PASOK has now become the official opposition party, as it has the second-highest number of seats in Parliament.

The televised debate among SYRIZA presidential candidates, which aired on ERT News on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, garnered significant interest from the viewing public.

According to available data, more than 638,000 viewers tuned in for at least one minute, with an average viewership of 286,600.

The new split in the SYRIZA parliamentary group has led to the loss of the official opposition title without the need for an election for the first time in post-junta history.

Greece saw a change in its main opposition party on Thursday after a wave of defections from the leftist SYRIZA party opened the door for the center-left PASOK to challenge the dominance of rightist Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Leftist SYRIZA on Thursday saw its position as the main opposition slip away after two of its MPs defected, leaving the embattled party with 29 MPs and its spot taken over by third-placed center-left PASOK.

On Thursday morning, Theodora Tsakri and Giota Poulou announced their decision to leave SYRIZA and become independent MPs.

Following this development, SYRIZA now holds 29 parliamentary seats, which means that PASOK, with 31 MPs, takes on the role of the main opposition party.

As former opposition leader Stefanos Kasselakis prepares to unveil the name of his new political formation on Saturday, another MP in the embattled SYRIZA party announced her intention to leave its parliamentary group on Thursday, a move that would whittle the leftists' position and leave it trailing now third-placed center-left PASOK.

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.