The meteoric political rise of ship investor Stefanos Kasselakis took a sharp turn downwards on Sunday, when Syriza, Greece’s second-biggest party, ousted him as its chief.
The former Wall Street commodity trader emerged from nowhere in September last year to wrest leadership of the centre-left party, which had been voted out of power in 2019 and had continued to crumble in the polls since.
Hopes that the 36-year-old asset player and founder of shipping outfits Tiptree Marine, SwiftBulk and SwiftTanker would manage to turn Syriza around were quickly frustrated, however, with the party’s popularity continuing to slide and internal squabbles eating the party from the inside.
Dissatisfaction with Kasselakis culminated in a vote by party leaders on Sunday to censure him as party chief and strip him of its chairmanship.
The outgoing opposition chief attributed his defeat to disloyal elements who sabotaged his effort to modernise the party.
Critics, however, accused him of an authoritarian leadership style and an ideological platform that conflicted with the party’s traditional left-leaning positions.
Kasselakis has not said if he plans to run as party leader again in a new vote scheduled for later this year.
Before entering politics last year, Kasselakis had earned a small fortune through opportunistic bulker and tanker asset plays.
Following the sale of the ships, he entered the Syriza leadership race in the summer as a total outsider. Being a Greek expat from Miami, Kasselakis lacked prior political experience, including Syriza party membership.
As the campaign progressed, however, the telegenic and social-media savvy Cretan increasingly looked like a breath of fresh air, attracted new members and aligned with Syriza barons close to the outgoing party chief and former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
It was precisely the Syriza members loyal to Tsipras who withdrew their support from Kasselakis in recent weeks.
