The new leader of SYRIZA Stefanos Kasselakis looks likely to vote in favour of the absentee ballot. Until now, the principal left opposition party, SYRIZA, has been staunchly against granting the Diaspora vote to Greek citizens living abroad – because it would, in their mind, alter the will of the Greek people.
Kasselakis has steered his party to a sharp U-turn, in the light of the passing of the legislation to allow citizens abroad the ability to vote from abroad – therefore not having to return to their Greek jurisdiction to vote – and with the expected new legislation which will grant the right for eligible Greek Diaspora to lodge a postal vote in the European elections.
Kasselakis, himself a Diaspora Greek – will embark on a global pre-election tour to Diaspora centres in North America, Africa, and Australia looking to seduce Greek Diaspora who are eligible to vote.
The 35-year-old former Goldman Sachs trader took over a party that blamed Goldman Sachs and the global financial system for devastating Greece’s economy just a decade ago.
Before entering politics in Greece, Kasselakis lived for 20 years in Miami and New York in the United States. Kasselakis was relatively unknown before May when he was still a resident of Miami and stood as a candidate on Syriza’s ticket in Greece’s general elections.
Kasselakis is Greece’s first openly gay party leader and recently wed his long-term partner, Tyler McBeth, an American emergency room nurse, in Brooklyn while pressing for the legalization of same-sex marriage in Greece.
He has moved against the left’s tradition and fixed position, which views Diaspora Greeks in the US, Canada, Australia, and South Africa as harbingers of conservatism.
In contrast to Alexis Tsipras, the former leader of SYRIZA and prime minister of Greece during the financial crisis, Kasselakis has embraced policies once considered an anathema to the left. He will, for example, vote with the New Democracy government in favour of more lavish defence spending and wants to augment SYRIZA’s engagement with the Diaspora. Kasseliakis seems to be pursuing a more economically liberal agenda, which runs counter to the traditional left politics of Greece.
A strong push for liberal social policies such as same-sex marriage, surrogacy, and adoption for same-sex couples buffers his pitch to centrist voters.
The former Goldman Sachs trader, wants to reconfigure the left’s conservative position and be seen as patriotic and progressive.
Led by Kasselakis, the new SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance may emerge at the end of the budget debate Greece’s parliament in his move to shift the left to a more centrist positions.
The leader of SYRIZA aims to visit Australia in 2024 to engage the Diaspora.
