Marinos Sizopoulos is concluding his cycle and stepping down from the parliamentary benches and the EDEK’s presidency in 2026, after first leading the party through the 2026 parliamentary elections and preparing the ground for the handover to the next leadership.
This is the basic plan, as it emerged from the assessment of the party’s Political Bureau meeting last week, and it is essentially expected to be clarified and finalised during tonight’s meeting of the party’s collective body.
Tonight, EDEK President Marinos Sizopoulos is expected to outline his plan and intentions for the future during his speech, following the election result of 9 June.
Of course, there are critical voices within EDEK, and the proposal for early and short elections was raised by some last week, but in the current circumstances, such a proposal is not expected to pass.
Moreover, there are no longer strong opposition voices within the party. Final decisions will be made within the Central Committee, which will convene in July, followed by provincial conferences.
The prevailing view, as emerged from the recent meeting of the Political Bureau, is that a possible resignation of the leadership and the calling of elections following an electoral contest in which EDEK did not achieve any of its goals, would lead the party into further introspection and problems and rekindle intra-party disputes.
On the contrary, the prevailing assessment is that after evaluating the election result, recording mistakes and omissions, an attempt should be made to regroup in a climate of intra-party stability, so that the party can recover and achieve a better electoral result in the upcoming parliamentary elections, which is the big bet for EDEK.
In essence, Marinos Sizopoulos will close his cycle by completing his term. According to the party’s constitution, there is a limit of two terms, and President Sizopoulos is already serving his second term.
Therefore, unless there is a constitutional change through a constitutional conference – which is not foreseen – Marinos Sizopoulos is not entitled to run again.
The same applies to the case of the parliamentary term, as Marinos Sizopoulos is completing the limit of consecutive terms in the parliamentary seats.
However, with this plan of action, as the party’s president intends, he will not step down under the pressure and weight of an election result, but will lead the effort for the parliamentary elections, aiming to hand over the leadership with an assessment of his presidency, showing that he is handing over the party with a respectable result and without any financial obligations.
EDEK circles note that the party failed to achieve its electoral goals in the European elections, but the percentage it received, under the circumstances, cannot be considered bad, always compared to the strength of the parties in the last parliamentary elections.
It is recalled that EDEK received 5.1% in the 9 June elections.
