Sokratis Famellos resigned Thursday as leader of Greece's left-wing opposition party, SYRIZA–Progressive Alliance, saying deepening divisions within the country's progressive camp had made it impossible for him to continue leading the party.
Announcing his decision in a public statement, Mr. Famellos said his resignation was intended to send "one and only one political message"—that Greece's fragmented left must unite if it hopes to challenge the governing center-right administration of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
"I am resigning as president of SYRIZA–Progressive Alliance," Mr. Famellos said. "I neither want nor can become part of this division at such a critical political moment for our country."
ΔΙΑΒΑΣΤΕ ΕΠΙΣΗΣ
He stressed that he is stepping down only as party leader and will remain both a member of Greece's Parliament and of SYRIZA.
Mr. Famellos, who took over the party during one of the most difficult periods in its history, defended his record in office, saying he had worked to restore the party's credibility after years of electoral setbacks and internal turmoil. He pointed to organizational reforms, financial restructuring and efforts to rebuild SYRIZA as a credible opposition force while pursuing a broader alliance among Greece's progressive parties ahead of the next general election.
Those efforts, however, ultimately failed.
In his statement, Mr. Famellos blamed the center-left PASOK party and the New Left movement for refusing closer cooperation, arguing that both bore responsibility for the continued fragmentation of Greece's opposition. He also criticized the recently established ELAS political movement for publicly rejecting collaboration despite growing public calls for opposition unity.
At the same time, he accused senior figures within SYRIZA of undermining his leadership from the outset by challenging the party's democratic decisions and pursuing personal political agendas.
"Unfortunately, the same mistakes and the same personal strategies that led to SYRIZA's decline in 2023 are being repeated," he said.
Mr. Famellos argued that these developments had fundamentally undermined the objectives he had set upon assuming the leadership, making it impossible for him to support what he described as a different political course for the party.
Despite resigning as president, he reaffirmed his commitment to SYRIZA and to left-wing politics, insisting that his departure should not be interpreted as a withdrawal from public life.
"My resignation has one and only one political message," he said. "SYRIZA–Progressive Alliance and the entire Left have a duty to serve unity in order to remove the Right from power, in the interests of the people. We must not allow any further division."
