The Leader of the Official Opposition () is the politician who leads the biggest opposition

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. Today Leader of the Official Opposition is the President of the parliamentary group of PASOK - Movement for Change,

Nikos Androulakis Nikos Androulakis (; born 7 February 1979) is a Greek politician who serves as president of the PASOK – Movement for Change since 2021. He served also as Member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2023. He was elected as member of the Hell ...

Role

According to the Rules of the

Hellenic Parliament The Parliament of the Hellenes (), commonly known as the Hellenic Parliament (), is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Greece, located in the Old Royal Palace, overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens. The parliament is the supreme demo ...

: ''"The President of the largest Parliamentary Group, who is not a member of the Government, is called the Leader of the Official Opposition, an office which gives him/her special rights (e.g. more speaking time during parliamentary sittings). (...) The leader of the party is also considered the President of the Parliamentary Group if he/she has been elected as a Member of Parliament."'' The leader of the official opposition is regarded as the fourth highest state office of the

Hellenic Republic Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, after the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament.
In addition, the leader of the opposition has certain minor privileges at the stage of the parliamentary procedure, including the ability to request two debates before the agenda, a longer speaking time and the right to appoint up to three deputy representatives at meetings, the same as the Prime Minister.

The case of
Stefanos Kasselakis Stefanos Kasselakis (; born 29 March 1988) is a Greek businessman, entrepreneur and politician, who previously served as the leader of Syriza. He is now the leader of the political party " Movement for Democracy" (Κίνημα Δημοκρατί ...

Stefanos Kasselakis was the president of

Syriza The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (), best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA ( ; ; a pun on the Greek adverb , meaning "from the roots" or "radically"), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politi ...

for the period September 2023 - September 2024, without being a member of parliament. This peculiarity, which is unprecedented in the history of Greek parliamentarianism, has sparked a debate on who is now considered to be the leader of the opposition. According to constitutional expert Charalambos Tsiliotis, the leader of the official opposition should be the president of SYRIZA parliamentary group, currently the party's MP Nikos Pappas.
However, the prevailing practice was to refer to Stefanos Kasselakis as the leader of the official opposition. Αfter all, in Parliament he had the privileges of the leader of the official opposition: free access to Parliament and the official office of the leader of the opposition, secretaries, the right to have officials seconded to him, official cars, police protection, etc. Following his dismissal as president of SYRIZA on 12 September 2024, his privileges were revoked.

Change of opposition leader without elections

The crisis that erupted in Syriza in the autumn of 2024 due to the expulsion of the elected President Stefanos Kaselakis from the party's organs and the subsequent rupture between the two sides led to the independence of MPs, resulting in the party losing the role of the official opposition, remaining second with 29 MPs behind Pasok (31 MPs), which was officially declared the official opposition on 21 November 2024. The President of the Parliament noted that this phenomenon - a change in the leader of the opposition without elections is unprecedented in the Greek parliamentary history. Pasok returned as an opposition leader party after 15 years. What Greece was like the last time PASOK was in opposition
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List of leaders of the opposition since 1974

Political party:

References

{{Reflist

Lists of Greek MPs Political office-holders in Greece *

Role

The case of Stefanos Kasselakis Stefanos Kasselakis (; born 29 March 1988) is a Greek businessman, entrepreneur and politician, who previously served as the leader of Syriza. He is now the leader of the political party " Movement for Democracy" (Κίνημα Δημοκρατί ...

Change of opposition leader without elections

List of leaders of the opposition since 1974

See also

References

The case of
Stefanos Kasselakis Stefanos Kasselakis (; born 29 March 1988) is a Greek businessman, entrepreneur and politician, who previously served as the leader of Syriza. He is now the leader of the political party " Movement for Democracy" (Κίνημα Δημοκρατί ...