In recent months, SYRIZA has been experiencing one of the deepest and most unprecedented crises in its political history, with the party’s internal affairs in a state of constant turmoil and upheaval. The departures of senior figures, the defections of MPs to independent status, and intense intra-party conflict have created a picture of disintegration that has led to a serious erosion of the party’s parliamentary strength and political influence. The image of a party that, just a few years ago, was in government has now been replaced by an atmosphere of uncertainty and successive internal clashes and splits. Each new departure reinforces the sense that SYRIZA is unable to regain political cohesion or present a united front against the challenges of opposition politics.
SYRIZA: From 47 MPs down to just 12
SYRIZA was elected in the June 2023 parliamentary elections as the official opposition party, securing 47 seats in parliament. However, its parliamentary strength began to shrink steadily as a result of the successive internal crises that followed.
The first and largest wave of departures came after the election of Stefanos Kasselakis as party leader. Eleven MPs left SYRIZA and formed the parliamentary group of New Left, reducing SYRIZA’s parliamentary group from 48 to 37 seats.
A second wave of losses followed in 2024, after Stefanos Kasselakis was ousted from the party leadership, when six more MPs left the parliamentary group. This came after the expulsion of Athina Linou, while Pavlos Polakis represented a special case of his own — he was temporarily expelled from the parliamentary group and later reinstated.
More recently, yet another wave of departures has been recorded, encompassing both resignations and defections to independent status. Giorgos Karameros, Katerina Notopoulou, Symeon Kedikoglou, and Vasilis Kokkalis all submitted their resignations. At the same time, Andreas Panagiotopulos, Giorgos Psychogios, Nikos Gavrilos, Charis Mamoulakis, Alexandros Meikopulos, Marina Kontotoli, Popi Tsapanidou, Kostas Barkas, Kalliopi Vetta, Olga Gerovassili, Miltos Zambaras, and Dionysis Kalamatinos all declared themselves independent.
Following these latest developments, SYRIZA’s parliamentary group now numbers just 12 MPs, representing a total loss of 35 seats compared to the strength it held after the 2023 elections. This is one of the largest contractions of a parliamentary group in the history of post-junta Greece, the result of successive internal conflicts and splits that have marked the party over the past three years.
The 12 MPs do not include Olga Gerovassili, who is set to formally submit her resignation by letter to the Speaker of Parliament within the coming days.
Rena Dourou is the sole candidate for parliamentary group leadership
Rena Dourou will be the sole candidate for the presidency of SYRIZA-PS’s parliamentary group, as announced by newly elected parliamentary group secretary Giannis Amanatidis.
“We hereby inform you that for tomorrow’s vote to elect the President of the SYRIZA-PS Parliamentary Group, a single candidacy has been submitted — that of MP for the B2 Western Athens constituency, Ms. Dourou Eirini (Rena),” the announcement stated, adding that the election will take place on Saturday, July 18, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. in parliament.
This development was widely anticipated, following Pavlos Polakis’s decision not to stand as a candidate for the leadership of SYRIZA’s parliamentary group. Polakis did not attend today’s session of the Political Secretariat and, in his statement, spoke of “the party’s shift and the erratic decision of the June Central Committee, when — on the recommendation of the now-resigned president Socrates Famellos — we decided to support another party,” while nonetheless stressing that the emergency Central Committee meeting on Saturday had secured SYRIZA’s autonomy.
As Polakis noted, it seems like “a luxury” for a parliamentary group of 8 people to have two candidates for the leadership. Rena Dourou is therefore expected to be elected president of SYRIZA’s decimated parliamentary group, as the party continues to shed members — with the majority of its MPs and party officials unwilling to back the vision of those who have been “cut off,” who favour a party positioned against Alexis Tsipras’s ELAS in the upcoming elections.
Dourou: I am answering the call — not out of personal ambition
In a post, Ms. Dourou published the letter announcing her candidacy, stating that she is not standing out of personal ambition, but because she was called upon by party members to help bring about a “fresh start” for SYRIZA. She takes aim at the wave of “defections without surrendering the seat, and resignations without articulating specific political differences,” yet expresses her firm belief that the situation SYRIZA finds itself in “is reversible.” She states that the party’s recovery ahead of its participation in the upcoming elections — “whether on a united, progressive ballot or independently — is the only path forward and must begin from the parliamentary group.”
Dourou’s letter
Comrades,
With this letter I am declaring my candidacy for the position of President of our party’s Parliamentary Group. I am responding not out of any personal ambition, but to the call from comrades for a fresh start for SYRIZA-PS — beginning from its Parliamentary Group. A parliamentary group that has delivered serious work from 2023 to the present, holding the right-wing government of corruption and decay to account with evidence-based criticism, fully honouring the trust and votes of the citizens.
Today, the parliamentary group — for reasons unrelated to the quality of its work — finds itself in crisis, just as the party as a whole does. Defections without surrendering the seat, resignations without articulating specific political differences: all of these have wounded, diminished, and weakened it. But they have not discredited it.
It is my deep conviction that this situation is reversible. The recovery of SYRIZA-PS, the realignment of its forces ahead of its participation in the upcoming elections — whether on a united, progressive ballot or independently — is the only path forward and must begin from the parliamentary group.
With a sense of responsibility toward the citizens who honoured us with their vote, and toward the people who support us — through hard work, seriousness, consistency, free from divisive behaviour and personal rivalries, putting “we” above “I,” with respect for all viewpoints, embodying what has always defined the ethos of the Left — we have a duty to make the parliamentary group the spearhead of our struggle against the corrupt right-wing government. And the starting point for the renewal of our party. With the goal that, after the elections, SYRIZA-PS will have a presence in parliament, acting as a catalyst for a broad progressive front — the alternative pole of governance, representing hope and change, and the future of our country.
With comradely greetings,
Rena Dourou.
Polakis withdraws and the question of “collective leadership”
Earlier, Pavlos Polakis had announced the withdrawal of his own candidacy. Two days prior, he had called on Ms. Dourou to voluntarily step aside so that a new parliamentary group leader could be elected unanimously — a request she refused. It is clear that the MP for Chania counted the numbers and concluded that the balance of support was not in his favour.
Insisting that what was needed was “a clear resolution to the party’s leadership question and a unanimous decision in electing a parliamentary group president,” Polakis conceded that this precondition “does not appear to exist. Some have made different choices (…) Do we really have the luxury, in a parliamentary group of 8 people, of having two candidates?” he wrote.
Polakis’s statement
In November 2024, having received almost 44% in the election to choose a new president of SYRIZA-PS, I refused to drag our people into a second round. At the time, I made that decision because I judged that we could not afford that luxury. With comradely spirit, I accepted Socrates Famellos’s victory, expressed no bitterness over his arrogant and decidedly uncomradely choices regarding the staffing of the party’s bodies, and continued the work I had been doing alongside comrades in the Transparency Department. Once again, our collective work produced results — for example, the resignation of Lazaridis.
That was the situation until the “inexplicable” shift in the party’s direction and the erratic decision of the June Central Committee, when — on the recommendation of the now-resigned president Socrates Famellos — we decided to support another party, one that had only just been founded and had not even made its programmatic positions public. This decision, unique in the history of world politics, resulted in SYRIZA-PS’s rapid collapse in the opinion polls.
Against all expectations, we managed to reverse the plans of those who wanted to push SYRIZA-PS out of the electoral contest, and through the emergency Central Committee meeting last Saturday, we secured the party’s autonomy.
Today, I am faced with yet another difficult decision. I have long made it clear that the creation of a progressive front to bring down Mitsotakis can only be built on the basis of a programmatic convergence that redistributes wealth in favour of labour, returns strategic pillars of the economy to public control, repeals the unjust austerity-era laws, and transforms both the state and the justice system.
Something like this requires a clear resolution to the party’s leadership question and a unanimous decision in electing a parliamentary group president — a precondition that does not appear to exist. Some have made different choices.
Is the fact that our MPs are going independent or surrendering their seats an individual decision — or part of a plan?
Are the threats to walk out, had I been given the honour of leading our parliamentary group, an expression of comradeship?
Do we really have the luxury, in a parliamentary group of 8 people, of having two candidates?
Given the political landscape taking shape around me, I am choosing to withdraw my candidacy for the presidency of our parliamentary group.
From the bottom of my heart, I would like to once again thank all the people who have supported me over so many years.
P.S. The rest at the Central Committee on Saturday.
“My path, you were always the same and you always remain so…
and there is no room on my road for others to command.”
He actually opened his first post of Friday, July 17, with this traditional Cretan couplet — and signed off with greetings from Sfakia, accompanied by photos: “My path, you were always the same and you always remain so… and there is no room on my road for others to command! Greetings from Sfakia to all the good people! Whatever the others do, they don’t touch us — because they’ve shown their true colours and their moral stature… WE WILL CARRY ON…”
Pappas’s kingmaker role and the collective leadership model
Nikos Pappas, who is positioning himself to play a pivotal role in the party’s direction, stressed that “the
