Greek opposition party SYRIZA saw its parliamentary strength drop to 10 MPs on Thursday following the expulsion of Nina Kasimati and independence of Olga Gerovasili.
The formal departures of Kasimati, lawmaker for Piraeus B, and Gerovasili, lawmaker for Arta, were announced on Thursday morning during a plenary session of the Hellenic Parliament in Athens. The double exit leaves the left-wing party with just 10 lawmakers in the 300-seat national legislature, down from the 47 seats it won in the 2023 elections.
Parliamentary Standing and Presidium Dispute
Having lost a major portion of its parliamentary group, SYRIZA now ranks below the right-wing Greek Solution party, led by Kyriakos Velopoulos, in parliamentary strength. SYRIZA, officially the Coalition of the Radical Left, served as Greece's governing party from 2015 to 2019 under former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, but has experienced major parliamentary contraction following recent electoral losses and factional splits.
At the same time, SYRIZA's allocated seat in the presidium of the Hellenic Parliament will remain vacant. The candidate proposed by SYRIZA's parliamentary group for vice president, State MP Elena Akrita, is not expected to gather the required votes in the assembly.
The ruling centre-right New Democracy party is unwilling to support Akrita's nomination for the presidium position. The outcome has caused strong reactions both from Akrita herself and within SYRIZA party headquarters at Koumoundourou Square in central Athens.
Government Strategy and Ministerial Action
In broader political developments across Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and 16 cabinet ministers are visiting Macedonia and Thessaloniki ahead of the annual Thessaloniki International Fair. Mitsotakis is inaugurating the Thessaloniki Metro extension and launching political initiatives aimed at reinforcing government strategy amid electoral challenges for New Democracy.
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis spoke on political credibility and toxicity, stating that nothing is more harmful to a prime minister than his own inner court. Meanwhile, Development Minister Takis Theodorikakos confirmed that the government has fully collected 25 million euros in fines levied against multinational corporations and major businesses under the National Price Reduction Initiative.
