Syriza faces internal split as leader Sokratis Famellos defends June 6 Central Committee decision

Sokratis Famellos, acting president of Syriza‑PS, told the party’s Political Secretariat that the Central Committee decision of 6 June was “absolutely correct and necessary” and demanded that all cadres respect it. He linked the decision to the party’s strategic alignment with the progressive front ELAS, warned against any move toward dissolution, and outlined priority policy areas such as the rule of law, constitutional reform, housing and local‑government issues.

Opposing factions – notably MPs Pa­vlos Polákis, Nikos Papapás, Rena Dourou and others – denounced the leadership’s line as a “strategic dead‑end” and “self‑debasement”. They called for an extraordinary meeting of the Central Committee to overturn the June 6 resolution and accused the party of political isolation. The intra‑party clash was echoed in statements from other members such as Giannis Boule­kos, who said the decision had led to “political isolation and social devaluation”.

Famellos also used the debate to attack the governing New Democracy (ND) on two fronts: a court‑ordered scandal involving the illegal use of personal data of 25,000 voters and a government policy that he described as weakening local self‑government. He framed the data‑leak case as a “major scandal” and accused the interior ministry of using the information for electoral purposes, while condemning recent cuts to municipal resources as driving municipalities toward insolvency.