ATHENS – A year after taking over a party in turmoil – and bringing more – Greek-American businessman Stefanos Kasselakis lost a no confidence vote brought by dissidents in SYRIZA, which will elect a new leader.

Kasselakis had said that moves against him by critics who didn’t like his pushing the Leftists toward the center would sink the party that in recent surveys has fallen as the major opposition into third place in two surveys and fifth in another.

The motion to censure him was approved by a vote of 163-120 in the 300-member Central Committee, being brought by the disaffected Group of 87 faction still tied to former leader and one-time premier Alexis Tsipiras, who resigned in 2023.

That means an extraordinary party Congress will be convened with new delegates to decide on the process for electing a new leader although it wasn’t said if Kasselakis is out or will preside until a new election in which he said he would run.

The challenge against him was led by a former supporter and previous deputy health minister Pavlos Polakis – who had been ejected from the parliamentary group after insulting an aide to Health Minister Adonis Georgioadis.

Kasselakis brought Polakis back into the group despite the Cretan firebrand’s notorious mouthing off against the party’s rivals and even colleagues and his reputation for tangling with anyone who gets in his way.

Polakis said he will now run against Kasselakis, as did Member of the European Parliament Nikos Farantouris, although it wasn’t known if other candidates would emerge such as lawmaker Olga Gerovasili, who had been the favorite to win in 2023 before Kasselakis used a whirlwind social media campaign to take over the party.