Dimitris Vitsas

Former SYRIZA heavyweight Dimitris Vitsas has said that a new political entity could be formed in anticipation of the upcoming European elections.

Vitsas, a former party secretary, recently parted ways with the main opposition, which is grappling with internal discord following the election of new leader Stefanos Kasselakis.

"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.

Main opposition SYRIZA has been plunged into turmoil again, after the proposal by its leader Stefanos Kasselakis to hold a referendum about the expulsion of prominent dissenters from the party appears to have backfired as senior figures that had so far backed him expressed their disagreement.

SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis has called on the main opposition party to hold an internal referendum on the expulsion of "four party members who brutally insulted all of us."

A day after being expelled from SYRIZA, Nikos Filis, a former education minister, launched an attack on the new leader of the leftist opposition party, Stefanos Kasselakis, drawing a parallel between him and former US President Donald Trump.

Three leading members of main opposition SYRIZA have said the party is facing a "very serious crisis" and have called for an immediate meeting of the party's political secretariat.

Three senior members of the main opposition have slammed an overnight decision by SYRIZA's new leader to expel them for openly criticising his views, saying that it is up to the party's ethics committee to push out members.

February 2016: Four platoons of riot police are dispatched to Kos from Athens. Dozens of residents on the eastern Aegean island block the road leading to the village of Pyli with rocks and fires, as they oppose the construction of a migrant identification and reception center in the area. They clash with police, who use tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Newly-appointed Labour and Social Affairs Minister Nikos Vroutsis has rescinded an encyclical signed by three SYRIZA ministers on 20 June, a bit over two weeks before the general election, which simplified procedures for the issuance of the AMKA social security number for  non-EU nationals and in particular for migrants, asylum seekers, and unaccompanied refugee children.

Migration Policy Minister Dimitris Vitsas framed the upcoming general elections in Greece as a battle between the "elites" and "regular people" during an interview with radio station Sto Kokkino on Tuesday.