The New Left (NEAR; ) is a

centre-left Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-mana ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in 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 ...

. It was founded on 4 December 2023 by eleven independent MPs who left the

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 ...

party. The president of the parliamentary group is Alexis Haritsis. The New Left officially became a party on 3 March 2024 after its founding conference.

History

After the resignation of

Alexis Tsipras Alexis Tsipras (, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019. A left-wing figure, Tsipras was leader of the List of political parties in Greece, Greek political party Syriza from 200 ...

as president of

, and the subsequent

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

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 ...

to replace him in September 2023, there was an internal crisis in the party. The internal party groups "Umbrella" and "6+6" criticized Kasselakis's attempt to move the party towards the center. Kasselakis is considered to be more moderate than Tsipras, wanting the party to emulate the Democratic Party in the United States, a

social-liberal Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited ...

party. He was criticized by some Syriza members for his previous support of the centre-right party

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a type of democracy in Marxism, based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that w ...

, which currently has a majority in the

and is opposed by Syriza. The 6+6 faction included deputy

Effie Achtsioglou Eftychia "Effie" Achtsioglou (Greek: Ευτυχία Αχτσιόγλου; born 4 January 1985), is a Greek politician who served as Minister for Labour, Social Insurance and Social Solidarity from 2016 to 2019. She is a member of the Hellenic Par ...

, who finished as runner-up to Kasselakis in the leadership election. This conflict eventually culminated in the withdrawal of the "Umbrella" faction from the party and the removal of two MPs considered close to it ( Peti Perka and

Euclid Tsakalotos Euclid Stefanou Tsakalotos ( ; born 1960) is a Greek economist and politician who was Minister of Finance of Greece from 2015 to 2019. He was also a member of the Central Committee of Syriza and has represented Athens B in the Hellenic Parliam ...

) on Kasselakis's orders on 13 November 2023. Ten days later, the "6+6" group and nine MPs from it ( Sia Anagnostopoulou, Effie Achtsioglou, Chousein Zeimpek, Nasos Iliopoulos, Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, Meropi Tzoufi,

Ozgur Ferhat Ozgkiour Nazif Ferchat ( ''Ferchát Ozgkioýr'', born in 1985 in Greece), is a Greek dentist and politician from the Muslim minority of Greece. Biography Ozkgiour Ferchat grew up, lives and works in Íasmos, in the regional district of Rhodope ...

, Theano Fotiou, and Alexis Haritsis) withdrew from Syriza. On 4 December 2023, the eleven independent MPs announced the name and logo of their new party at a scheduled event. The next day, the parliamentary group was officially announced in the Hellenic Parliament. MEP

Dimitrios Papadimoulis Dimitrios Papadimoulis (; born 21 March 1955) is a Greek politician and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) as a member of The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL. Personal life Papadimoulis was born in 1955 in Athens. He att ...

announced his affiliation with the group the same day. On 1 March 2024, the party's founding conference was held in Athens. The foundation declaration summarised the fundamental positions of the party and announced the establishment of a Transitional Coordination Committee with 238 members. On 9 June 2024, in the

European Parliament elections Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by Universal suffrage, universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after Electio ...

, the party failed to retain its MEPs,

and Stelios Kouloglou, receiving only 2.45% of the vote, and failing to reach the 3% threshold."Χαρίτσης για Ευρωεκλογές 2024: Αρνητικό το αποτέλεσμα για τη Νέα Αριστερά, κανείς δεν δικαιούται να πανηγυρίζει"
''iefimerida.gr'' (in Greek) 09-06-2024

Election results

European Parliament

References

External links

* {{Greek political parties 2023 establishments in Greece Democratic socialist parties in Europe Left-wing parties in Europe Left-wing politics in Greece Political parties established in 2023 Political parties in Greece