Nikos Voutsis

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.

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.

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. 

The political secretariat of main opposition SYRIZA has decided that the party's new name will not be decided via a referendum because of concerns it may cause divisions. 

Instead, the party's Central Committee will convene on February 15-16 and attempt to reach consensus on the issue. 

The planned referendum to change the name of SYRIZA has reportedly become a source of acrimony within the leftist party as it is opposed by its more radical wing.

Veteran New Democracy MP (representing the district of Ioannina) Konstantinos Tasoulas has been elected Parliament Speaker with an unprecedented 283 votes in the 300-seat legislature.

Tasoulas was supported by five of the legislature's six parties (New Democracy, SYRIZA, Movement for Change, Elliniki Lysi, and MeRa 25).

Prime Minister-elect Kyriakos Mitsotakis said New Democracy's sweeping victory in Sunday's general election had significance for Europe as well as Greece, pointing to the defeat of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn which crashed out of Parliament.

As the uproar over the pre-election transfer to Parliament of civil servants related to SYRIZA officials continued on Friday, House Speaker Nikos Voutsis said he felt "not a trace of guilt," while another senior SYRIZA official, Deputy Speaker Tasia Christodoulopoulou, apologized for appointing her daughter and said she would not run in snap general elections next month.

Greek House Speaker Nikos Voutsis has defended the scheduled transfers of public sector staff to Parliament which were criticized by the conservative opposition Thursday as a blatant case of nepotism and corruption after it emerged that many of them concerned relatives of high-ranking SYRIZA officials.

The government came under intense fire on Thursday over what opposition New Democracy described as old-school practices of mass hirings to the civil service and transfers of public sector staff to Parliament.