Ousted SYRIZA president Stefanos Kasselakis and his supporters are apparently stepping up efforts to return the latter to the leftist party’s helm, despite a central committee decision banning him from running in a coming leadership race.
The latest development has the Kasselakis “camp” leasing office space in an industrial loft in a gritty southwest Athens district, days after a website – odikosmassyriza.gr – debuted to recruit volunteers and present positions by the previous newcomer to Greek politics. “odikosmasssyriza” means “our SYRIZA”.
Immediately after being deposed as SYRIZA leader in a majority vote by members of the party’s central committee last month, Kasselakis was locked out of his office at the party’s main headquarters and his official email account was deactivated – hours after the vote.
The acrimony and often personal insults between Kasselakis, a former junior Goldman Sachs trader and permanent US resident, his supporters, called “Kasselistas” in the press, and political rivals remaining in SYRIZA now threaten another “splintering” in the party – which is lagging badly in all recent opinion poll results.
