Political newcomer Stefanos Kasselakis elected new leader of Greece's main opposition Syriza party

A 35-year-old businessman with no previous political experience was voted to lead Greece’s major opposition coalition, the left-wing Syriza party, on Sunday. In a runoff election, Stefanos Kasselakis beat Effie Achtsioglou, a 38-year-old MP and former labour minister. Three other contenders have already been eliminated in the first round. Achtsioglou contacted her opponent to congratulate him while the ballots were still being tallied. With 70 per cent of precincts reporting late Sunday, Kasselakis had just under 57 per cent of the vote, while Achtsioglou had just over 43 per cent. Around 136,000 Greeks voted, lower than in the first round. Kasselakis, a Miami resident, was unknown to the Greek public until he was named to Syriza’s at-large list. In Greece’s national elections, 15 of the 300 legislators are chosen at-large, based on the vote percentage of each party. Expats may be considered as at-large candidates. Syriza elected four such members in May and three more in June. Kasselakis, who finished tenth, had little chance. Then, in late August, a few days after presenting a list of party recommendations, Kasselakis published a four-minute video detailing his life and goals. The video went viral, catapulting him to the forefront of the party’s leadership race. Achtsioglou had been the clear favourite. Nineteen days after the video introduced him to the public, Kasselakis led the first round of the leadership contest, with nearly 45 per cent of the votes to Achtsioglou’s 36 per cent. To the party’s old guard and left-wing, Kasselakis’ candidacy rankled. A rival candidate, former Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, accused Kasselakis of indulging in a shallow, social media-driven “post-politics.” Achtsioglou, who sought to appeal to a broad range of supporters when she was the frontrunner, took up these criticisms. But rank-and-file party members apparently felt a need for change. Syriza lost power when the conservative New Democracy party won the 2019 elections 39 per cent to 31 per cent. In June’s election, Syriza fell to just under 18 per cent, while New Democracy got over 40 per cent. Alexis Tsipras decided to step down, forcing the leadership contest. Despite their youth, Achtsioglou and Kasselakis are older than Tsipras was 15 years ago when he became Syriza leader at age 34, taking advantage of a deep financial crisis. He took the party from around 4 per cent voter support to 35 per cent in 2015. Experts say not being a lawmaker will hamper Kasselakis’ efforts to oppose Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. But the new leader of the opposition, aware of his limited knowledge of politics, seems happier doing trips around the country, talking to people, posing for selfies and posting the whole thing on Tik-Tok. It also remains to be seen how some of the left-wing voters will take to someone who boasts of his business acumen and mastery of several languages. A youthful math prodigy attending an exclusive Greek school, Kasselakis was offered a scholarship by the Phillips Academy, a prep school at Andover, Massachusetts. He was offered another scholarship to attend the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he got a B.S. in finance, in addition to a B.A. in International Relations. He worked for Goldman Sachs and founded a shipping company. Shipping news service Tradewinds has called him a “distressed asset maestro” who sold all five of the ships the company owned at a handsome profit in 2022.