35-year-old Stefanos Kasselakis has been elected the new leader of the left-wing, main opposition SYRIZA party.
With 75% of the votes counted, the head of the party’s Electoral Committee Yiannis Drosos said Kasselakis leads his rival, 38-year-old Effie Achtsioglou, 56.65% to 43.35%.
According to Achtsioglou’s team, she telephoned Kasselakis to congratulate him on his victory.
Kasselakis’ candidacy has rankled with the traditional party members, who cannot stomach the fact that he had no relationship with the party until he stood as a candidate on the country-wide list in the May and June election, far enough down the list that he had no chance of being elected MP.
Outgoing leader Alexis Tsipras, who voted shortly after 5 pm, declared that whoever emerges as the winner, the party will remain unified and offer an alternative to ruling conservative New Democracy.
Source: Ekathimerini.
