New Left holding inaugural congress
A year after splitting from SYRIZA over irreconcilable differences with the party’s new leadership under now-ousted Stefanos Kasselakis, New Left, established by 11 influential members of the main opposition’s parliamentary group, is holding its inaugural congress in Athens, starting on Thursday.
The four-day event at the Peace and Friendship Stadium on the capital’s southern coast brings together 1,400 delegates elected by the party’s branches last Saturday.
Party leader Alexis Haritsis, who served as interior minister and deputy economy minister under the 2015-2019 SYRIZA government, will open proceedings with a keynote speech at 8 p.m., while delegates are expected to vote on the party’s main positions on Sunday.
“We want a conference that radiates renewal, democratic dialogue and a political mission that convinces people we have a left-wing party here that is changing itself in order to change the bleak reality of the present,” Haritsis told Kathimerini in a recent interview.
The event, which coincides with an extraordinary conference of SYRIZA ahead of its planned leadership race, is also expected to address possible alliances with other parties in the left of the political spectrum and New Left’s poor performance in last summer’s European Parliament elections, where it garnered just 2.45% of the vote.
Kathimerini
