The collapse of SYRIZA in the Greek parliament shows no signs of stopping, as the wave of MP resignations has taken on the dimensions of a full-scale political disintegration, exposing the deep fractures running through the party. Following the resignations of Katerina Notopoulou, Giorgos Karameros, and Symeon Kedikoglou from their parliamentary seats, a new wave of departures has now followed. On July 14th, Andreas Panagiotopoulos, Giorgos Gavrilos, and Giorgos Psychogios all abandoned their seats, confirming that the internal party crisis is not only failing to subside — it is deepening by the day.
Read more: A barrage of defections rocks SYRIZA: After Panagiotopoulos and Gavrilos, Psychogios also walks out
SYRIZA’s parliamentary group shrinks to historic low
The picture emerging from SYRIZA’s headquarters points to a party in a state of prolonged self-absorption, with developments causing serious concern even among its own senior members. The successive departures are stripping SYRIZA of vital parliamentary representation and reinforcing the image of a political force unable to regain its cohesion.
This reality is now reflected in the starkest possible terms inside parliament itself. SYRIZA’s parliamentary group has shrunk to just 20 MPs, causing the party to slip to fourth place in the parliamentary rankings — falling behind the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), which holds 21 seats. This is a development of profound political and symbolic weight, as it reflects the party’s continued loss of influence on the central political stage. The scale of this dramatic decline becomes even clearer when one considers that in the June 2023 elections, SYRIZA had secured second place with 47 seats.
Earlier, MP for Corinthia Giorgos Psychogios had left SYRIZA’s parliamentary group to sit as an independent. He was preceded by MP for Argolis Giorgos Gavrilos, who, upon announcing his departure, argued that SYRIZA has completed its historical cycle and can no longer respond to the need for political change — stressing that the reconstitution of the progressive political space will emerge through social processes, not top-level agreements. Before Gavrilos, MP for Achaia Andreas Panagiotopoulos had also notified the Speaker of the Parliament by letter that he was leaving SYRIZA’s parliamentary group and would remain as an independent MP.
