Greek Leftist Party Loses Parliamentary Group as MPs Quit

A supporter of Nea Aristera [New Left] holds a flag. Photo: Gabriel Sakellaridis Facebook

The Greek left-wing party Nea Aristera, [New Left] has been left without a parliamentary group after seven of its MPs quit on Monday. The party leadership linked their resignations to the formation of a new political party by former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. Tsipras presented his new party, ELAS: Greek Left Alliance, on May 26.

MP Effie Achtsioglou announced on Facebook that she has long disagreed with the current party leadership. She said she was leaving the party’s parliamentary group and resigning her seat as well. “I am resigning as a member of parliament but I am not resigning from active politics,” she said.

A total of 150 members of New Left, including six MPs, earlier announced their withdrawal in a joint letter. “We are leaving the New Left because we believe that the cycle that began two years ago has reached its limits. It is a difficult but necessary decision,” the members said.

New Left stated that the resignations of the party executives and MPs and the dissolution of its parliamentary group “was expected” and was “directly linked to the establishment of ELAS by Alexis Tsipras”.

The New Left has now been left with only four MPs, which means it falls below the 10-seat threshold set by parliament for a parliamentary group.

New Left was formed in December 2023 by 11 MPs who left the SYRIZA party amid discontent among leftist members about the then election of Stefanos Kasselakis as leader.

The party’s former leader, Alexis Charitsis, resigned in March. His position was then taken by Gabriel Sakellaridis, a former close associate of Tsipras and government spokesman in the first SYRIZA government in 2015.

Tsipras took SYRIZA to power in Greece in 2015 on a promise to end the austerity measures imposed on Greece by its international creditors in the European Union and International Monetary Fund, IMF, in exchange for a succession of financial bailouts.

He was accused of hypocrisy when painful spending cuts and tax rises continued. The party lost the next election in 2019 to the conservative New Democracy party, which dealt SYRIZA another bruising defeat in June 2023.

With SYRIZA winning just 17.8 per cent of the popular vote, Tsipras stepped down.