SYRIZA leadership election goes to second round

In Greece, the leadership race of the main opposition party Radical Left Alliance (SYRIZA) was left to the second round to be held on 24 September.

In the statement made by SYRIZA, the first results of the general presidential election held yesterday were shared.

According to 98.32 per cent of the votes, Stefanos Kaselakis came first with 45.47 per cent and Effie Achtsioglou came second with 36.21 per cent, while Nikos Papas received 8.64 per cent and Evaggelos Tsakalatos 8.4 per cent. The other candidate Stefanos Cumakas remained below 2 per cent.

More than 146,000 SYRIZA voters cast their ballots in the first round of the election, in which the candidates failed to reach the required majority to become the party leader.

Kaselakis and Ahtsioglu will compete for the leadership in the second round on 24 September.

Former Labour Minister Achtsioglu, 38, invited SYRIZA supporters to vote in the second round.

"SYRIZA, the main opposition of the country, cannot move forward in the murky waters of simple solutions. We have a responsibility to the Greek people. We must be sincere about what we want and how we will achieve it. What we want is to defeat the right-wing regime."

Kaselakis also noted that he is seen as a hope by SYRIZA members and said: "I am not hope alone, we are all hope together."

Effie Achtsioglou served as Minister of Labour from November 2016 to July 2019.

Kaselakis, 35, who immigrated to the USA at the age of 14 as a full scholarship student due to his outstanding success in mathematics, studied finance and economics, worked at Goldman Sachs for a while and then founded his own company in the field of maritime transport.