Main opposition SYRIZA 4th party congress began in a tumultuous atmosphere on Thursday afternoon as internal dissention against Stefanos Kasselakis intensified and was even punctuated by a high-profile intervention by his predecessor, former prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
Among others, Tsipras called on his successor, essentially a previously unknown Kasselakis, to again seek a mandate from the leftist party’s grassroots, otherwise the party could face a poor showing in the upcoming European Parliament election.
The development comes months after Kasselakis, a political newcomer who returned from permanent residency in the United States, won an internal party election against a handful of veteran and more well-known SYRIZA rivals.
In harking back to the once anti-memorandum grouping’s meteoric rise to power during the bailout era, the one-time junior Goldman Sachs trader turned his attention to Europe, telling delegates at an indoor coastal arena that “…We live in a complicated world, we are a part of the heart of Europe and our conference takes place in the midst of global challenges. The real enemy of the peoples of Europe is the systematic push of the working people towards the extreme right. The goal is to keep the core of neoliberalism intact. Europe is in immediate danger from the rise of the extreme right in the upcoming election. Europe’s failure to anticipate developments has resulted today in the monster of inflation and precision.”
