Stefanos Kasselakis emerged as the new leader of Greece’s main opposition party Syriza, after a tightly contested second round of internal voting on Sunday aimed at choosing a successor to former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Following a review of 75 percent of the nearly 130,000 ballots, the businessman and maritime investor secured 56.7 percent of the vote, while his principal rival, MP and former Labor Minister Efi Ajtsioglu, trailed with 43.3 percent, according to the Election Committee on Monday.
The former Goldman Sachs employee declared victory in front of Syriza’s headquarters late last night in Athens. Ajtsioglu acknowledged defeat and offered congratulations to the winner.
“Today the light has won and hope is ours for a common future,” said the new Syriza leader, who revealed his sexual orientation during the campaign, marking him as the first openly gay political figure in Greek history.
The internal election process became necessary after Tsipras resigned from the party leadership following Syriza’s defeat in the country’s parliamentary elections at the end of June.
Although tensions surfaced within the leftist coalition after the vote, both contenders spoke of reconciliation and emphasized the need for unity moving forward. They underscored the importance of continuing to work together under a leadership team that can contest the current conservative government headed by Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Still, questions linger about how Syriza’s far-left faction will react. Efklidis Tsakalotos, the former finance minister and a prominent figure in that wing, did not extend congratulations to Kasselakis, leaving unsettled dynamics within the party’s internal balance of power.
Kasselakis, now 35, is viewed as relatively liberal on economic and social policy. He spent his formative years in the United States, moving there at age 14 and later earning a degree in finance from the University of Pennsylvania with support from a scholarship.
Although he joined Syriza only a month ago, he has positioned himself as a self-made candidate who can break through by appealing to voters with a message of individual effort and renewal, presenting himself as the alternative to the current conservative administration led by Mitsotakis.
Prior to this leadership contest, Syriza had seen significant upheaval. The party had briefly risen to power, ending a decade in government after Tsipras became prime minister in 2015 with a pledge to end austerity measures tied to European rescue programs. That commitment led to a bailout agreement in a subsequent cycle, which generated disappointment among many Greeks and contributed to the party’s slump in support in recent elections.
Tsipras’s tenure began amid hopes of remedying the debt crisis and reorienting economic policy. The path through the bailout framework involved further rounds of cuts and reforms, which were deeply polarizing within Greek society and helped reshape the electoral landscape, ultimately contributing to the shift in momentum toward the conservative New Democracy party in the latest cycle.
The current leadership transition at Syriza thus reflects broader tensions across Greece’s political spectrum as parties recalibrate after a period of economic recovery and ongoing debates over how best to balance growth, social welfare, and fiscal discipline.