Veteran MEP Dimitris Papadimoulis quits SYRIZA
A prominent European Parliament lawmaker for leftist SYRIZA announced on Thursday he was quitting the party, citing disagreement with the “political choices” made by the new leader, Stefanos Kasselakis.
Dimitris Papadimoulis, first elected as a European lawmaker in 2014, also said he was stepping down as head of SYRIZA’s European Parliament delegation. He announced his decision to the party’s leadership in a letter this morning.
“The reasons that led me to my decision are purely political and not personal. They relate to political choices as well as issues of collective functioning, style and ethos which, with the full responsibility of the new leadership group, are leading SYRIZA to an acceleration of its downward trajectory and to an intensifying dissolution crisis,” he said in a statement.
“They are drastically distancing it from the SYRIZA that we co-formed, that the Greek people got to know and that I served for decades, certainly taking my own share of responsibility for our mistakes and weaknesses,” he added.
Papadimoulis said he will serve until the completion of his third – and last – term in the European Parliament.
His announcement comes a few hours after a faction led by former Labor Minister Effie Achtsioglou, known as “6+6,” announced it is breaking away from SYRIZA.
