SYRIZA leader envisions ‘mini think tanks’
Opposition leader Stefanos Kasselakis announced Monday his intention to create small thematic groups of experts as “a first step towards the renewal of SYRIZA.”
In a posting on Facebook, Kasselakis did not specify the themes these small teams will tackle, but did say that “they will collaborate directly with me.”
Kasselakis added that he has chosen robotics specialist Danai Voutyrakou to help pick up the expert that will make up these expert groups, which he calls “mini think tanks.”
Voutyrakou, 28, is a graduate of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens and has done graduate studies in Computational Biomedicine in Munich, where she currently lives and works as a software engineer for robotics systems used in medical and chemical laboratories. She has taken part, with distinction, in several domestic and international robotics competitions, since high school.
Voutyrakou has a longer involvement with SYRIZA than Kasselakis; in 2021, she was a member of a party think tank working on digital transformation. And, in the recent May and June elections, she was a candidate in the multi-seat constituency of Western Attica, earning 3,690 preference votes, second among the party’s candidates, without being elected. In the September 17 and 24 elections for the party leadership, she had supported Effie Achtsioglou, Kasselakis’ main challenger for the top post.
“Diana is exactly what I am looking for in the future party cadres. And, from now on, she will join me in the forefront of our search for them,” Kasselakis said in his post.
Kasselakis, 35, is currently in the United States where he has lived for most of the past 21 years, winding down his affairs.
