SYRIZA's seat-return deadline expires as former MPs keep their seats and party releases video
SYRIZA released a video of earlier statements by MPs who left the party and now sit as independents, after its deadline for them to return their seats ran out on 14 October. The parliamentary group, which had 47 MPs after the 2023 national elections, now numbers 10.
The deadline and the video
SYRIZA's deadline for independent MPs to return their seats expired on 14 October 2026, and the party answered with a video. It first sent an informal ultimatum about a week earlier, then on 7 October, at a briefing for accredited journalists, set a new cut-off of 14 October, which it called a 'dignity deadline'. The MPs did not return their seats and remain in Parliament as independents. The 5 minute 51 second video, released on the deadline date, splices together earlier statements by the same MPs about colleagues who left during the 2024 split.
- Briefing for accredited journalists sets a new deadline of 14 October, called a dignity deadline
- Deadline expires without seats returned; SYRIZA releases video and holds press conference
Who appears in the video
The clips date from the split led by Stefanos Kasselakis, which produced New Left, and show speakers arguing that a departing MP must hand the seat back to the party. Former leader Sokratis Famellos appears at the start and end of the film, which closes on a smiling photo of him from the Pallas balcony at the 2025 presentation of Alexis Tsipras's 'Ithaca'. The credits list 14 names, including Olga Gerovasili, Giannis Sarakiotis, Dionysis Kalamatianos, Kostas Barkas, Charis Mamoulakis, Miltos Zamparas and Andreas Panagiotopoulos. The video ends with signed declarations from 14 party MPs stating that the seat belongs to the party. Most of the independents asked for comment by To Vima declined to answer, and some replied 'no comment', Famellos among them. Gerovasili's circle responded that 'there is no SYRIZA any more' and that Kasselakis's children are not SYRIZA.
The party's case
SYRIZA's press conference, attended by Nikos Pappas, Giannis Boulekos, Giorgos Panagiotopoulos and Dimitris Melidis, framed the demand as a matter of institutional responsibility.
Our action today is taken with a sense of institutional responsibility, as the conduct of these MPs touches on the functioning of Parliament.
The party argued that the seats are not personal spoils and that keeping one violates the popular mandate. It said its earlier deadline of dignity and political ethics went unused, and that the issue was political rather than personal, since the independents deprive Parliament of valuable strength. It also described it as unhealthy to have 52 independents in Parliament, and said parties that take them on as MPs would carry the stigma of partnering with what it called the immoral. The demand rests on the decision of the party's 5th Congress, which the departing MPs had co-signed.
Strength of the parliamentary group
The SYRIZA parliamentary group was elected with 47 MPs in the 2023 national elections and now numbers only 10. It has also fallen to fifth place by parliamentary strength, with Greek Solution now ahead of it.
- Elected in 2023 national elections
- 47 MPs
- Current parliamentary group
- 10 MPs
Tsipras and the party's stance
From its headquarters, known as Koumoundourou, the party said it no longer wanted the independents back and that the period when it turned the other cheek had ended.
the period when it turned the other cheek has passed.
The party also criticized Alexis Tsipras for leaving open the possibility of accepting the former MPs, three months after founding ELAS. It separately demanded the resignation of Kostas Zachariadis as head of SYRIZA's municipal faction on the Athens city council, and warned that any party placing the former MPs on its ballots would bear the political cost.