New Syriza chief to make first overseas trip to Cyprus

Syriza’s new party leader Stefanos Kasselakis has pledged that his first official trip will be “to our brothers in Cyprus”, it emerged on Monday.

Kasselakis, 35, took control of leftist Syriza party on Sunday night garnering 56.69 per cent of the vote against 43.31 per cent for Efi Achtsioglou, a former labour minister who had long been viewed as the favourite.

“My first trip will be to our brothers in Cyprus,” he said.

Kasselakis had recently come under fire when he described the north as Turkey’s “statelet” which drew furore across the Greek speaking world.

He later attributed the mishap to “fatigue and sleeplessness of the campaign trail” and that he only recently moved back to Greece after living in the US for 21 years.

Kasselakis is a former Goldman Sachs associate and a shipping entrepreneur, who told a jubilant left in Greece that celebrated his victory that that “light and hope have won.”