I follow the SYRIZA elections, and I have to say that if Kasselakis is elected, then SYRIZA will completely abandon its left-wing character, aside from certain social issues like gender equality, gay rights, etc. For example, yesterday the Greek Parliament voted in favor of an anti-strike measure that also allows employers to expand the 8-hour day to 13-14 hours, as well as removing a lot of worker rights and protections. SYRIZA abstained from the vote, when it was prepared to vote against. Kasselakis had come out earlier making remarks in favor of this new law package, and his influence probably made SYRIZA to abstain instead of voting against.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Not since the emergence of the leftwing student activist-turned-politician, Alexis Tsipras, who took Europe by storm with Syriza’s ascent to power at the height of Greece’s debt crisis, has an electoral candidate realigned the constellation of Greek political stars.
For those who had witnessed civil war in the aftermath of Nazi occupation, and decades of rightwing authoritarianism, the young leader symbolised the Greek left’s hard-won struggle for acknowledgment in a nation from which, politically, it had been bludgeoned and banned.
Among the array of policy priorities proposed by the businessman were “drastic” tax relief for private and public sector employees, the separation of church and state, judicial reforms, citizenship for migrant children born and brought up in Greece and legalising same-sex marriage.
But Kasselakis, a vocal gay rights proponent who has appeared on local TV with his American partner Tyler McBeth, has been applauded for his winning personality and is seen by some as the disruptor needed to put the party on a new path.
This week Syriza MPs, including Nikos Pappas, a fellow candidate who picked up 9%, said they would support Kasselakis, whose versatility with social media and air of glamour has resonated with younger voters.
In a climate of open warfare in Syriza – and talk of the party’s dissolution – it remains to be seen whether Sunday’s result will cast the newcomer as a shooting star or the embodiment of renewal on the left of Greece’s political landscape.
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