Greek opposition leader is ousted by his Syriza party

ATHENS, Greece -- Greek opposition leader Stefanos Kasselakis was ousted by his party’s central committee Sunday via a motion of no confidence, just a year after his election to the post by party cadres who accused him of being an authoritarian and not fully ideologically aligned with the party.

After an often tense and acrimonious two-day session, the central committee of the left-wing Syriza party approved the no-confidence motion 163-120, with three members voting blank. Another eight abstained.

It was not a single event that precipitated Kasselakis' ouster but, a buildup of discontent over the past year, which caused many who had viewed him as a charismatic savior to view him as someone bent on turning the party into a personal vehicle.

Kasselakis reacted to the result of the vote by saying that he felt “liberated.” He did not say whether he will join a new leadership contest.

“Now, the people know how I felt censured ever since I was elected,” Kasselakis said. He attacked Syriza’s “bureaucracy” for overturning the decision of the party base and, criticized the secret ballot. He and his supporters preferred an open show of hands.

He compared the secret ballot’s promoters to the hooded collaborators in World War II. Cries of “shame!” greeted his comparison, which has been taken up by vociferous Kasselakis supporters on social media.

Kasselakis, 36, was elected in September 2023 by voters stunned over the magnitude of defeat in two successive elections in May and June 2023 at the hands of a conservative party that had already served a full term.

After long-term party leader and former prime minister Alexis Tsipras resigned, party supporters turned to Stefanos Kasselakis — an outsider, a political neophyte, and a Miami, Florida resident. He had no connection to the party before he became a candidate for the May election. A four-minute video in which he told his life story shot him to prominence and made him the favorite.

From the start, Kasselakis’ past and style rankled with party cadres. A former Goldman Sachs employee and shipowner and onetime registered Republican, some of his positions, such as advocating stock options for employees, incensed the old-schoolers who accused him of wanting to turn Syriza into an ideologically vague party. They mocked his heavy use of social media and called him Trumpian.

But this meant nothing to a party base that idolized Kasselakis and expected him to rejuvenate the party. He easily saw off his loudest detractors, including his main leadership rival. They formed another party, New Left, which has fared poorly. Then, Kasselakis started picking fights with many of those who remained.

In last June’s European elections – without much at stake domestically and amid record abstention – the ruling conservatives’ vote share plunged, but it was the far right that mostly gained. Syriza’s vote share declined further.

Electoral failure damaged Kasselakis' aura and his supposed attractiveness to voters. Criticism, and Kasselakis’ pushback, intensified, leading, almost inevitably, to the no-confidence motion.

The central committee will now set a date for an extraordinary party congress, which must happen within three months, where leadership hopefuls will present their candidacies. Then, party members and friends will vote for the leader in one or, if necessary, two rounds.

When Kasselakis was elected, about 150,000 showed up for the first round and 136,000 for the second. As with the ruling conservatives and the socialist PASOK party, voting eligibility rules are very loose. One just has to show up, declare themselves a party “friend” if not already a member and pay a two-euro ($2.20) fee.