Main opposition SYRIZA, the only full-fledged leftist party to ever wield power in Greece (2015-19), appears headed for either another leadership shake-up or even a breakup, only months after electing a new president and subsequently witnessing the defection of 11 of the deputies it elected to Parliament last June.

The first day of a party congress on Thursday erupted with internal opposition to SYRIZA president Stefanos Kasselakis, punctuated by a high-profile sanction by his predecessor, former premier Alexis Tsipras, who more-or-less directed the one-time junior Goldman Sachs trader and expatriate in the United States to renew his mandate.

Kasselakis did just that and announced not only one, but four separate ballots: for the party’s president and members of its party organs at the local, prefectural and central level. The newcomer also lobbed criticism at Tsipras, the European left’s “great hope” before 2015. “Find me an opponent and let’s go,” was Kasselakis’ challenge from stage of the conference, amid an appearance reminiscent of a corporate tech product launching. At last word, however, the exact date for such internal party elections had not been fixed.

“They (internal opponents) think they’re sinking me; they’re sinking the ship, not realizing that they are fellow passengers, while at the same time they want to be captains. On which ship, friends, the one they’ve sunk? I forgive them, to an extent. Some thought that they could manage the ‘foreigner’, the ‘young lad’, by having a straw man as president; that they would rule by proxy; that the elected president would ask permission over when he could talk to party members. You’re looking for the wrong individual,” he charged.

Earlier, he told delegates and supporters that “if SYRIZA’s structures operated correctly, I shouldn’t have been president.”

A day later on Friday former SYRIZA minister and current MP Olga Gerovassili, among the party’s former “presidential guard” close to Tsipras, appeared ready to face-off with Kasselakis, himself a previously unknown political quantity in the country.

The tumultuous situation in the once firebrand and radical party was followed by a report in a web news site, news247, claiming that Kasselakis was the owner of a company based overseas, something that’s illegal for the leaders of Parliament-represented political parties in Greece.

In response, Kasselakis said: “Everyone knows that I was a businessman with activity abroad, where I lived until recently for a total of 21 years. I will immediately be briefed by my lawyers if the law applies to parliamentary party leaders, who are not allowed to own foreign companies. I am not, as it’s well known, a member of parliament.”

The congress continued on Friday at the Tae Kwon Do indoor arena in coastal southern Athens.