| New Left | |
| Native Name: | Νέα Αριστερά |
| Native Name Lang: | el |
| Abbreviation: | NE.A. |
| Logo Alt: | Logo of the New Left |
| President: | Alexis Haritsis |
| Leader1 Name: | Alexis Haritsis |
| Founded: | 4 December 2023 (as a parliamentary group) 3 March 2024 (as a party) |
| Registered: | 5 December 2023 |
| Split: | Syriza |
| Europarl: | The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL |
| Seats1 Title: | Hellenic Parliament |
| Seats2 Title: | European Parliament |
| Website: | neaaristera.gr |
| Country: | Greece |
The New Left (NA;) is a pro-European left-wing[1] political party[2] in the Hellenic Parliament. It was founded on 4 December 2023 by eleven independent MPs who left the Syriza party. The president of the parliamentary group is Alexis Haritsis.[3] The New Left officially became a party on 3 March 2024 after its founding conference.
After the resignation of Alexis Tsipras as president of Syriza, and the subsequent election of Stefanos Kasselakis 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 party.[4] He was criticized by some Syriza members for his previous support of the centre-right party New Democracy, which currently has a majority in the Hellenic Parliament and is opposed by Syriza.[5] [6] The 6+6 faction included deputy Effie Achtsioglou, 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[7] and the removal of two MPs considered close to it (Peti Perka and Euclid Tsakalotos) on Kasselakis's orders on 13 November 2023.[8] Ten days later, the "6+6" group[9] and nine MPs from it (Sia Anagnostopoulou, Effie Achtsioglou, Chousein Zeimpek, Nasos Iliopoulos, Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, Meropi Tzoufi, Ozgur Ferhat, Theano Fotiou, and Alexis Haritsis) withdrew from Syriza.[10]
On 4 December 2023, the eleven independent MPs announced the name and logo of their new party at a scheduled event.[11] The next day, the parliamentary group was officially announced in the Hellenic Parliament.[12] MEP Dimitrios Papadimoulis announced his affiliation with the group the same day.[13]
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.[14] [15]
On 9 June 2024, in the European Parliament elections, the party failed to retain its MEPs, Dimitrios Papadimoulis and Stelios Kouloglou, receiving only 2.45% of the vote, and failing to reach the 3% threshold.[16] [17]