SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance’s Member of Parliament, Othon Iliopoulos, resigned in a letter addressed to the President of the Greek Parliament on Saturday, August 10. Iliopoulos has requested that his seat be transferred to the party’s newly elected president, Stefanos Kasselakis.
The SYRIZA leader, Stefanos Kasselakis, a former banker and businessman who lived in the United States before taking over as the head of the leftist party at the end of September, currently does not hold a seat in the Greek Parliament, as he was not elected in the most recent parliamentary elections.
The presence of SYRIZA’s president in Parliament is seen by many as crucial for the party’s renewal and reorientation during this period of significant change. Iliopoulos, who has stepped down, highlighted the importance of having the Greek Diaspora represented by one of their own, implicitly suggesting that SYRIZA’s elected president should play an active role in parliamentary affairs.
To facilitate this, the five candidates ahead of Stefanos Kasselakis on SYRIZA’s state list would need to resign as well. The first alternate on the list is Popi Tsapanidou, who previously served as the party’s spokesperson.
However, Tsapanidou’s position on the list results from an appointment by former party leader and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, not from direct electoral votes. Consequently, her entry into Parliament lacks the popular ‘legitimacy’ typically required for parliamentary representation.
According to the Greek Constitution, Popi Tsapanidou, as the first alternate, will be called to assume the duties of SYRIZA’s state MP following Iliopoulos’s resignation. The next steps involve announcing the seat in the plenary session of Parliament.
After this announcement, the seat will be filled according to electoral law, with Tsapanidou expected to be sworn in and take on her role as the first alternate on the state list.
The Parliament’s schedule indicates that the plenary session will convene on August 28, 2024. Thus, Kasselakis’s potential entry into the Greek Parliament is still a complex process with an uncertain outcome.
Who is Othon Iliopoulos?
In the 2023 elections, Alexis Tsipras appointed Othon Iliopoulos, an Associate Professor of Oncology at Harvard, as head of SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance’s state list, representing the Greek Diaspora. In this role, he was tasked with defending the party’s vision for a democratic and socially just Greece in Parliament.
Iliopoulos actively engaged in discussions on SYRIZA’s proposed electoral law, which aims to grant Greeks abroad the immediate right to vote and be elected for specific representative seats. “Our view has been and remains that Greeks abroad should not simply ‘lend’ their votes to Greek parties, as is the case with the current law,” he stated in his resignation letter.
As SYRIZA’s Shadow Minister for the Greek Diaspora, Iliopoulos collaborated with the party’s Secretariat for the Greek Diaspora to develop comprehensive positions reflecting the concerns of Greeks abroad.
These include the promotion of Greek language learning, the advancement of Greek-language education in mixed schools abroad, and fostering a stronger, lasting connection between Greeks and their homeland.
The Post of SYRIZA’s President
SYRIZA President Stefanos Kasselakis commented on Othon Iliopoulos’s resignation from Parliament through a social media post.
He praised Iliopoulos for his contributions, noting that he “adorned not only the state list but also the Greek Parliament,” and affirmed that Iliopoulos would always remain a “valuable interlocutor and collaborator” for him.
