An extraordinary meeting of the Political Secretariat of main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance has been scheduled for Monday, November 11.
SYRIZA deputies Alexandros Avlonitis, Kyriaki Malama, and Rallia Christidou announced in a letter to the president of the Parliament on Sunday their intention to quit the party parliamentary group and become independent, following MP Petros Pappas who did the same a day before.
His resignation as parliamentary spokesperson, while remaining within SYRIZA-PA's parliamentary group, was also announced on Monday by Giorgos Gavrilos, citing his dissatisfaction "with the mistake made in the party in the last two months".
The parliamentary group of SYRIZA-PA now has 31 MPs and is equal with the parliamentary group of PASOK-Movement of Change. It still retains the status of main opposition party under parliamentary rules, however, which stipulate that in the event of a tie, the party that received the highest percentage of votes in the elections retains the role of main opposition.
In the event of further resignations from SYRIZA-PA's parliamentary group, the role of main opposition party will pass to PASOK-KINAL, with Nikos Androulakis becoming leader of the opposition.
This is the first time in recent parliamentary history that a party has lost its role as main opposition in the midst of the parliamentary period. Any new party that is formed must have at least 10 MPs in Parliament in order to be represented as a parliamentary group.
Until that time, the MPs that resigned will join the ranks of the independent MPs, whose have now increased to 18.