Greek leftists elect former Goldman Sachs associate as leader

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A former Goldman Sachs associate who made his shipping fortune in Miami has been elected leader of Syriza, the radical leftist party that took Greece to the brink of a euro exit.

Stefanos Kasselakis, 35, secured more than 56 per cent of the votes on Sunday, succeeding Alexis Tsipras as the leader of Greece’s main opposition, which has roots in communist and anti-capitalist movements.

“I’m not a phenomenon, I’m the voice of a society. I will never betray you. Tomorrow starts hard work,” he said to the fans celebrating his victory on Sunday night.

Tsipras, who was prime minister during Syriza’s only stint in government from 2015 to 2019, stepped down as leader in June after suffering a crushing electoral defeat. In those polls, the leftist opposition party lost by a margin of more than 22 per cent to the ruling centre-right New Democracy party.

Three former Syriza ministers and party stalwarts were tipped as the main contenders to succeed Tsipras. But just three weeks before the first-round vote, Kasselakis raced ahead in polls, stunning political analysts and party insiders.

Kasselakis succeeded in convincing Syriza’s members that he was the future of the party — despite little name recognition, a home address that was recently in Miami and a CV that included a stint in high finance and a fortune made in shipping.

Prior to entering the contest, his main experience in politics had been running as an expatriate candidate on Syriza’s ballot in June’s general election. He failed to secure a seat.

“He was a candidate from nowhere, not known in business or politics, not known in his party or anywhere; he was actually a nobody until very recently,” said Stathis Kalyvas, Gladstone professor of government at Oxford university.

With just a few weeks to campaign, Kasselakis relied heavily on social media. In a four-minute Instagram video that launched his campaign, Kasselakis said that, throughout his time as a Goldman Sachs associate, he saw first-hand how capital was “buying cheaply other people’s labour” and how “arrogance makes money”.

After his stint at the investment bank, Kasselakis explained that he made his money by moving into shipping. He also said that he was gay and married to a nurse. The video went viral and made him a serious threat to Effie Achtsioglou, a former minister who had been the frontrunner.

Kasselakis campaigned in recent weeks in the regions most affected by floods and fires, criticising prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his centre-right government for failings and mismanagement.

He also visited Makronisos, an Aegean island where communists were imprisoned and exiled after the Greek civil war, stressing his commitment to Syriza’s leftist roots. But within the party, there are doubts over his true political views.

“He managed to get the leadership of a party with just a few hours of public speaking,” said Dimitris Liakos, a former deputy minister and member of Syriza.

Liakos said that Kasselakis was “very clever” in being able to harness latent support in the party for the kind of newcomer leader Tsipras once embodied.

Other members of Syriza view him with suspicion. Stefanos Tzoumakas, who was also running for the party’s presidency, accused Kasselakis “of being part of a corrupt system of oligarchs who placed him in this position to serve their interests”.