Greece’s left has an unlikely beacon of hope: 35-year-old Stefanos Kasselakis made a career as an investment banker in the USA – and now wants to lead Syriza to success with a social agenda.
There is confidence in the air in central Thessaloniki. A few hundred people, mostly left-wing supporters, applaud Stefanos Kasselakis, who has been touring the country for several weeks with his typical beaming smile. Kasselakis is the new hope of the Greek opposition. It was only in August that the political newcomer announced that he would run for the leadership of the left-wing Syriza party. Not at a party event or a press conference, but via a YouTube video with music and the words: “My name is Stefanos and I have something to tell you.”
An unusual way to serve as the new leader of the previously tradition-conscious Greek left. Even more unusual for Syriza is the person Stefanos Kasselakis himself. The man who wants to revive Greece’s ailing opposition is only 35 years old, until recently lived in Miami in the USA and, according to Greek media, made millionaire as an investment banker and shipping owner .
In addition, which is still a news story in conservative Greece, Kasselakis lives in a registered partnership with a man and would like to soon become a father through a surrogate mother. In his introduction video, Kasselakis emphasized: “I don’t have a gay agenda, I have a human agenda.” He was aware that he had no party experience – instead, said Kasselakis, he had experience “in work and in social life.”
Praise for “political phenomenon”
Kasselakis clearly won the first round of the member survey last Sunday with 45.04 percent, ahead of former Labor Minister Efi Achtsioglou, who achieved 36.21 percent. The self-made businessman, who was born in Greece, was “discovered” by the outgoing, long-time Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, who put him on the Syriza election list – even if Kasselakis did not make it into parliament. Now the man who was completely unknown in Greece until a few months ago wants to be in the front row.
MP Petros Pappas is one of Kasselakis’ prominent supporters and praises him as a “political phenomenon”. In a very short time he managed to “become known nationwide, gain great acceptance among the population and embody hope for the center-left camp in the country.” The center-left camp, which, according to Pappas, was “in the intensive care unit” after the last election, needs “shock therapy.”
Investment banker appears purified
Kasselakis is seen as a fresh alternative to the well-known Syriza greats, who are blamed by the party’s supporters for the decline of the past few years. He promises more transparency, fewer privileges, better health care and more education for everyone, a separation of church and state, an abolition of conscription and a policy that enables young people to stand on their own feet more quickly: they should, says Kasselakis in Thessaloniki, not having to “still live with their parents at the age of 35”.
But above all, Kasselakis scores with his winning demeanor – and his biography of someone successful in the world. According to his own statements, at the age of 14 he went to the USA on a mathematics scholarship and made his way there. Among other things, in a job that is deeply hated by the Greek left: as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Kasselakis, however, appears to have reformed and says that in the world of investment banks he experienced how capital buys cheap labor – and that is why he turned away.
The successful investment banker wants to make a career with a social choice program.
A first faux pas on the subject of Cyprus
His prominent supporter Pappas believes that Kasselakis will also be able to conquer the political center of society for Syriza – and, as a winner, will be able to challenge Prime Minister Mitsotakis. “This is the greatest hope associated with Kasselakis,” says Pappas. He praises Kasselakis’ courage and determination. With these qualities, the 35-year-old nurtures the hope “that he will win against his political opponent.”
As is often the case with political newcomers, Kasselakis is not safe from making mistakes. Shortly before the vote on Sunday, he made headlines with a comment about Turkey. Kasselakis described the occupied northern part of Cyprus as the “province of Turkey” – a gross faux pas in political Greece.