A 35-year-old businessman with no prior political experience was elected leader of Greece’s main opposition party, Syriza, on Sunday.
Stefanos Kasselakis defeated Effi Achtsioglou, 38, a former Labor Minister, in Sunday’s runoff. In the first round, three other candidates had been “eliminated.”
While the vote counting was still underway, Effi Achtsioglou called Stefanos Kasselakis to congratulate him on his victory, according to the Associated Press.
With 70% of electoral districts closed, Kasselakis won 53% of the vote.
Kasselakis, a resident of Miami, United States, was unknown to the Greek population until he was elected as a candidate on Syriza’s general list.
In Greece’s national elections, 15 of the 300 deputies are freely elected, depending on the percentage of votes of each party.
The general list of candidates may include expatriates.
At the end of August, a few days after presenting a list of proposals for the party, Kasselakis published a video of just over four minutes in which he talked about his life and his vision. The video ended up going viral, transforming him into a serious candidate for the party leadership.
At the end of June, Alexis Tsipras announced the resignation of the Syriza leadership, four days after the heavy defeat in the June 25 legislative elections against New Democracy (ND) of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“There are times when crucial decisions need to be made,” said an emotional Alexis Tsipras at a press conference in Athens, stressing that he would call elections for the leadership of Syriza, for which he said he would not be a candidate.
Tsipras, 48, was Greece’s prime minister from 2015 to 2019, during politically tumultuous years as the country struggled to remain in the eurozone and end a series of international bailouts.
In the June 25 elections, Syriza received just under 18% of the vote – losing almost half of its support in the last four years – while Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy surpassed 40%.
Source: TSF
