Fifty academics resign from SYRIZA party in Thessaloniki in a scathing letter
Fifty academics in Thessaloniki resigned from main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance on Sunday, accusing party leader Stefanos Kasselakis of exercising absolute power and using both divisive and conflicting rhetoric that contravenes the renewal and radical left principles.
The 50 were members of the SYRIZA organization of academics in Thessaloniki, and they said they had expressed their concerns about the party's new direction in two letters, each addressed to Kasselakis and the two party secretaries, noting in particular the lack of democratic procedures within the party.
In their letter they said they were leaving both the organization and the party because SYRIZA "no longer represents us ideologically and politically." They added that "we have no place there and do not wish to participate in a trajectory leading away from the values and principles of the radical renewal and ecological left, and of democracy itself."