The center-left0 SYRIZA party, which a decade ago dominated the Greek Left is bracing for a wave of departures, with several lawmakers reportedly considering breaking away to align themselves with the new political movement by former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
A Central Committee meeting held last Saturday, intended by the leadership to project control, instead deepened the sense among officials, members and lawmakers that the party’s prospects for recovery are fading. For many inside SYRIZA, the gathering confirmed that the real political contest has shifted elsewhere.
The prevailing mood is captured in a single phrase circulating among officials: “every man for himself.” The conversation is no longer about rebuilding local organizations or restarting the party machine, party sources say, but about the position each figure hopes to secure in the reshaped center-left landscape that has emerged since Tsipras founded his new group, the Greek Left Alliance.
Tsipras led SYRIZA to power in 2015 and served as prime minister until 2019. His decision to launch a separate political vehicle has reordered expectations across the progressive spectrum.
A new round of departures
Sources say dozens of officials and members are now expected to leave in the wake of the meeting. Many are mid-level figures active in party organizations and committees who have concluded that SYRIZA no longer offers a realistic path back to relevance. A number are already said to be in contact with people close to Tsipras, and the committee’s outcome has given them the opening to make a move.
The picture grows more complicated within the parliamentary group. Discussions in recent weeks have moved beyond hypothetical scenarios, according to sources, taking on more concrete form. A group of seven to ten lawmakers is said to be seriously weighing independence as a first step, while awaiting the final shape of developments on the left.
These lawmakers have not reached any agreement with Tsipras’s team, sources stress, but going independent now would put them in a stronger position once the realignment takes shape. Their central argument is that the Greek Left Alliance now polls in second place, drawing voters and officials from across the progressive field, while political investment in SYRIZA’s current form offers little return. Some are said to be weighing a more drastic step still, giving up their parliamentary seats outright as a signal of a clean break.
SYRIZA’s leadership is seeking to present an image of control. The reality inside the party, sources suggest, points in a different direction, with the central question no longer how SYRIZA recovers but how far and how fast the departures will spread.
Should the reports be confirmed, the party could face what some describe as the most serious internal crisis in its history. Among those at party headquarters, sources say, there is a growing conviction that the fight for the future of the Greek left will be waged not within SYRIZA, but in the new political space forming around Tsipras.
