Zoe Konstantopoulou’s rise and the shifting political landscape
Since the Greek parliamentary elections in May 2023, the contest for second place in political polls has resembled a game of musical chairs. The runner-up spot has rotated between leftist SYRIZA, once the main opposition party; socialist PASOK, currently holding that title in parliament; and, most recently, the anti-establishment party Course of Freedom.
Now, Course of Freedom’s leader, Zoe Konstantopoulou — who broke away from SYRIZA in 2015 to form her own party the following year — appears to be solidifying her grip on second place. And she’s making no secret of her ambitions. With frequent television appearances, Konstantopoulou has begun actively articulating her political vision.
According to Giorgos Arapoglou, CEO of Pulse polling company, Konstantopoulou currently leads in four key voter segments: young people aged 17–29, women aged 17–44, individuals facing financial hardship, and voters who identify as left-wing or center-left.
Whether this support translates into real electoral power remains to be seen. But Arapoglou notes that Course of Freedom has managed to gain traction across nearly all sub-groups — vocational and geographical alike — suggesting the party is no longer a niche force.
The volatility of Greece’s political scene since the 2023 national elections — and even more so since the European elections last June — has been unprecedented since the country’s return to democracy in 1974.
In Parliament, PASOK has overtaken SYRIZA as the official opposition, as a result of a number of breakaway parties formed by former SYRIZA members. In the polls, the second spot has changed hands multiple times: from SYRIZA under Alexis Tsipras, to SYRIZA under Stefanos Kasselakis — now heading a new party, the Movement for Democracy — then to PASOK, briefly challenged by both the far-right Greek Solution and the Communist Party (KKE), and finally to Konstantopoulou’s Course of Freedom, which is now firmly in second.
Even during a short-lived resurgence following the re-election of Nikos Androulakis as PASOK leader last October, this party has struggled to connect with younger voters and women, according to Arapoglou.
“PASOK appears be performing decently among financially struggling voters,” he said, “but still falls short of being the dominant choice.”
Course of Freedom, on the other hand, appears to be gathering support from across the political spectrum. Angelos Seriatos, head of research firm Prorata, describes it as a magnet for disillusioned and unconventional voters.
One in three Course of Freedom supporters are former SYRIZA voters, while the party also appeals to past abstainers, KKE supporters, and even disaffected voters from the far-right Greek Solution and the ruling New Democracy party, Seriatos said.
A key factor in this realignment has been the collapse of SYRIZA, now polling around just 6 percent, and the lingering trauma of the Tempe rail disaster — in which 57 people died when two trains collided on the Athens–Thessaloniki line in 2023.
The fact that, in a European country, two trains were on a collision course for 12 minutes, leading to 57 deaths, continues to weigh heavily on the government — whether fairly or unfairly, Seriatos pointed out.
Nektaria Stamouli-Kathimerini
