SYRIZA, Greece’s biggest left-wing opposition party, suffered another devastating defeat on Thursday, November 23, when nine legislators resigned in protest of the party’s newly elected leadership.
According to AP News, former SYRIZA labor minister, Effie Achtsioglou led the walkout as nine lawmakers declared themselves independent.
35-year-old Miami-based businessman Stefanos Kasselakis, who won leadership of SYRIZA in late September, has not been able to help reverse the impact of the party’s defeat since the June general election.
In a party statement, SYRIZA declared many dissenters have ignored repeated invitations made by Kasselakis to join him in reforming the party.
Their actions, the statement said, “will be judged by history.”
SYRIZA has recently fallen to third place in opinion surveys behind Socialist opponents, bolstering Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ conservative government’s supremacy.
Source: AP News