SYRIZA party

The new parliamentary group formed by the 11 MPs who recently left the main opposition SYRIZA party announced their name as "New Left" (Nea Aristera) on Monday at an event open to the public in Athens.

European Parliament Vice-President Dimitris Papadimoulis said Sunday he will represent in that assembly the new Parliamentary group created by 11 MPs who defected from the main opposition SYRIZA party.

Stefanos Kasselakis, the leader of Greece's main leftist opposition, on Friday laid a wreath at the memorial on the grounds of the former Military Police Special Interrogation Unit (EAT/ESA) to commemorate the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising. He was joined by a delegation from his SYRIZA party.

I left Greece many years ago and thus my understanding of its politics might not be as thorough as that of my fellow Greeks who live in the country. It is possible then that the current developments in the SYRIZA party might not be clear to me.

Aristides Baltas, a former minister of culture, has announced his departure from the main opposition SYRIZA party. 

Baltas announced his decision in an op-ed published in Efimerida ton Syntakton on Wednesday in which he also accused new SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis of transforming the party into "a personal instrument of his unchecked ambition." 

Nikos Toskas, a former minister for citizens protection, announced his departure from the main opposition SYRIZA party in a social media post on Wednesday.

Toskas accused the new leadership of deviating the main opposition party from "fundamental principles of the Left and the needs of the people, while aligning with the dictates of the economic oligarchy."

"Umbrella," the left-wing faction of the main opposition SYRIZA party, led by former Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, has officially announced it has quit the party.

Nikos Voutsis, former speaker of Parliament, announced on Friday that he is departing from the main opposition SYRIZA party. 

His decision follows a similar announcement made earlier in the day by another prominent party figure, Panos Skourletis.

The new leader of the opposition, Stefanos Kasselakis, began his tenure as leader of the left-wing SYRIZA party by making some modest personnel changes that have already resulted in pushback.

Also, Kasselakis failed to persuade his main rival for the party leadership, lawmaker Effie Achtsioglou, to take any leadership role in the party or the parliamentary group.

Candidates running for the leadership of the main opposition SYRIZA party have hit the campaign trail ahead of the leftist party's congress on September 2 and the elections for a new president on September 10.