Greece’s Syriza Has Hit the End of the Road
When Greece’s left-wing Syriza elected Stefanos Kasselakis — a former registered Republican and businessman — as its leader, it marked a low point for the party. Kasselakis has since left Syriza, but he has left behind a party without a sense of purpose.

Stefanos Kasselakis speaking to the press in Athens, Greece, on June 9, 2024. (Nick Paleologos / SOOC via AFP via Getty Images)
First as tragedy, then as farce, and finally as that final season of a mediocre sit-com when every possible trick, even if obviously ridiculous, is used to attract some interest from the audience. This is one way to describe the complete implosion of Syriza, a party that was once thought to be the big hope of the European left.
Anatomy of a Crisis
Syriza has suffered another split and is now a much smaller party. Stefanos Kasselakis, the successor to Alexis Tsipras as president of Syriza, was not only ousted from his position by a newly formed majority at the Central Committee, but also barred from taking part in the leadership election. After mobilizing his supporters to impose his candidacy on the party, including by organizing a mass protest outside of the venue where the party Congress took place between November 8 and 10, Kasselakis left the party along with some members of parliament and has gone on to found his own party, called Movement of Democracy, which has five members of parliament.
As a result of MPs following Kasselakis or simply leaving Syriza, Pasok has now replaced Syriza as the main party of opposition in the Greek Parliament. At the same time, the party is plummeting in the polls. Syriza — which in the meantime elected a new leader, Sokratis Famellos — is currently polling at around 6-7 percent. To make things even more complex, it seemed that within the current “base” of Syriza, significantly reduced because of the party crisis, there was a current in favor of Kasselakis, a man with no background within the Left who was, despite his populist rhetoric, unsuccessful in increasing the popularity of Syriza.