Kasselakis throws gauntlet at party detractors

SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis has challenged his opponents within the party to field a rival candidate for a new leadership contest.

“I am ready. Let’s get done with the minor [issues] in order to face the major [ones], [Prime Minister Kyriakos] Mitsotakis’ right-wing. Find me an opponent. Find me an opponent and let’s go,” Kasselakis said in an impassioned, aggressive speech on the first day of the leftist opposition party’s congress.

“Those who believe I was planted into SYRIZA’s leadership, they will see my roots. I appeal to my roots: SYRIZA’s members and people,” he said earlier.

Kasselakis, a 35-year-old businessman without prior political experience, was surprisingly elected leader of the main opposition party in September 2023. A viral video presenting himself and his candidacy a few weeks ahead of the election had helped, but, even more so, it was the sense that the party, which had been trounced in double elections in May and June of the year, needed a radical change.

Since that election, many party stalwarts have departed, accusing Kasselakis of a “lifestyle” leadership short on ideology. Even many among those who remained turned on him in a dramatic session of the party’s top executive, the political secretariat, taking umbrage from a questionnaire he had planned to distribute to members, asking their opinion on whether the party’s name and symbols should be changed, as whether as it should remain a leftist party or rebranded as center-left.

“The people who lined up” to elect him leader “will line up again, to have a voice and hope. I am ready,” Kasselakis proclaimed Thursday.

In the secretariat meeting, Kasselakis had challenged his detractors to let him be leader until the next national election, which is not due to take place until 2027, or challenge him for the leadership.

Lately, he has rejected the notion that a bad result in June’s European Parliament elections could lead to his departure. And, on Thursday, he accused those who disagree with him of wishing exactly such a bad result.

“Some believe that with constant clashes, different positions and leaks to the vultures of the propaganda media, they will achieve my thrashing in the Euro-elections, so that they can pose as saviors. You’ve got it wrong,” Kasselakis said.