“The new Greek opposition leader has less than half a year to win over voters in the European elections – but before that he has to convince his own party. The prospects for both look bleak,” comments Bloomberg in an extensive report entitled “SYRIZA’s bet on a former Goldman Sachs trader failed.”

As Bloomberg points out, “Stefanos Kasselakis was an unlikely choice for SYRIZA, the radical left party that railed against EU austerity policies and nearly forced the country out of the euro in 2015. The former Goldman Sachs trader was virtually unknown before he contested the leadership in September and only came out on top because of the mess his predecessor left behind, as he did not endorse any of the candidates.”

The result is a party leader whose views — support for private universities and stock options for workers — are more in line with his Wall Street past than with the old-school activists he’s now trying to lead. .

“In his days, SYRIZA has begun to disintegrate,” commented the agency’s article, referring to the departure of senior officials from the party, which left it with just 36 MPs and its dip in the polls to around 12% from 36% at its peak. of his prime in 2015.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day”

“I took over just three months ago. Rome wasn’t built in a day. But rest assured, we are on the right track and will leave a legacy for the next generations,” he said Stefanos Kasselakis in his earlier statements in the media, which the article now recalls

The American news agency recalls that Mr. Kasselakis was a volunteer in the 2008 election campaign of then-senator Joe Biden, but descended on the Greek political arena in the 2023 elections, where Kyriakos Mitsotakis secured a sweeping victory that pushed Alexis Tsipras to oust him. from the leadership of SYRIZA.

“Kasselakis was favored by the silence of Tsipras,” Aristides Hatzis, professor of law and economics at the University of Athens, tells Bloomberg.

And as the agency reports, “Kasselakis is actually implementing the strategic shift that began under his predecessor. Tsipras may be famous for defying EU demands for budget cuts in 2015, but he ruled for another four years after that and ended up implementing a brutal austerity program.”

“After the trauma of the crisis years there is a logic in the efforts to move SYRIZA closer to the center”, notes the agency, but “Greek voters do not seem willing to take risks. Without the charismatic Tsipras at the helm, the party manages to lose its most radical supporters, without convincing moderates to move from PASOK.”

Bloomberg also comments on the recent opinion polls which are not encouraging for SYRIZA since, as the agency says, newly elected party leaders usually register an increase in the opinion polls, but the opposite happened with Kasselakis.