Euclid Tsakalotos

His political career lasted over half a century; it was full of crises, scandals, even an assassination attempt. But some of the most dramatic passages in the memoirs of Wolfgang Schaeuble (September 18,1942 - December 26, 2023) concern Greece.

Euclid Tsakalotos, the former finance minister and one of the 11 MPs who bolted from SYRIZA to create the New Left party, said former leader Alexis Tsipras needed to make his own self-criticism.

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.

People of all ideological persuasions who care about the effective functioning of Greece's democratic system cannot but watch with dismay what is happening in SYRIZA.

Greece's main opposition party suffered a split Sunday when a left-wing faction announced it was breaking away, accusing the party's recently elected leader of abandoning its core ideology for a sort of "right-wing populism."

"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.

Top officials and hundreds of members of the main opposition party published a document on Thursday in which they raised further concerns about the direction SYRIZA has taken since the elections of its new leader, Stefanos Kasselakis, as turmoil within the party continues to brew. 

Since Stefanos Kasselakis was elected as the new leader of Syriza, the party has been riven with internal strife and tensions.

Main opposition SYRIZA is on the brink of further turmoil as many members of the "Umbrella" faction, which represents the left-wing opposition within the party, are reportedly ready to press the "split" button at the weekend's Central Committee. 

Greece's leftist main opposition is holding its standing congress to approve the candidates running for party leadership at the Foundation of the Hellenic World on Saturday.

The congess' agenda includes only that topic, and its proceedings will open at 11 a.m.