SYRIZA is bracing for a major internal showdown, as Pavlos Polakis is set to ignite a powder keg at Saturday’s Central Committee meeting. He is expected to call for the replacement of Sokrates Famellos and demand new leadership elections — a move driven by his own ambitions to take the helm of the party.
Pavlos Polakis: set to demand a leadership change at SYRIZA’s Central Committee
Sources indicate that the MP for Chania believes he commands the majority needed to mount a credible bid for the party presidency. In a post published on Monday, Polakis made a pointed reference to Famellos, declaring that he was heading into a battle that would be “all or nothing.” He strongly implied that he would call on all party members to take a clear, public stand — particularly following the recent incident in which SYRIZA’s leadership struck down three parliamentary questions he had co-signed with fellow MPs. “The dilemma is clear, and everyone will have to take a position. No one should be absent!” he wrote pointedly.
The stance of Nikos Pappas and Rena Dourou
Not all members of the party’s minority faction share Polakis’s confrontational approach — most notably Nikos Pappas and Rena Dourou, who appear to favour a collective leadership model. Their concern is that an extreme proposal could end up rallying the pro-presidential camp. Polakis, however, dismisses this alternative as half-hearted and inadequate to resolve SYRIZA’s current leadership crisis. It therefore remains possible that Saturday’s meeting could see a realignment of forces — particularly if Famellos presents a position that satisfies Pappas and Dourou.
Famellos’s plan for a broad progressive alliance
According to sources, Sokrates Famellos will maintain his position that SYRIZA should not contest the next elections alone against Alexis Tsipras. He is expected to clarify, however, that his proposal for cooperation among progressive forces remains firmly on the table. In doing so, he will signal to the minority faction that, should a new electoral alliance take shape — potentially incorporating other parties such as New Left, Nikos Kotzias’s PRATTO, and Louka Katseli — SYRIZA would then be ready to compete for voters’ support. Under this scenario, the new coalition would not be led by Famellos himself, but by a prominent figure from the broader Left. Such an outcome could make for a smoother path forward. The key question, however, is whether Polakis will accept this solution or dig in and push the confrontation to its limits.
Minority faction to demand Polakis’s reinstatement to the parliamentary group
At the same time, the minority faction is expected to press Famellos to reinstate the Chania MP to the parliamentary group, from which he was notably expelled not long ago.
It is worth noting that discussions among left-wing parties about forming a unified electoral front have been ongoing for some time. Those talks stalled following the last Central Committee’s decision to back Alexis Tsipras’s party, the Greek Left Alliance.
The minority faction, however, believes that the recent wave of defections from SYRIZA toward Tsipras’s camp may have shifted the balance of power within the party’s governing bodies. Meanwhile, two more MPs are expected to leave the Koumoundourou-based party in the coming hours, having concluded that the Central Committee has little of substance to offer given the state SYRIZA currently finds itself in.
