Stefanos Kasselakis announced his candidacy for the presidency of SYRIZA-PS in a video he posted on social media.

Below is the full text of Stefanos Kasselakis’s announcement regarding his candidacy for the presidency of SYRIZA-PS:

«My name is Stefano, and I have something to tell you.

I was born in Marousi in 1988.

In a country where prime ministers are hereditary. In a family with self-made parents. My mother, a dentist, worked day and night to support my father while he was starting his company. Eventually, that company grew, and I found myself growing up in Ekali.

Except that this prosperity turned out to be superficial—just like Greece’s. The judicial racket targeted my parents and took everything they had—and even what they didn’t have.

So, at 14, I found myself all alone in America. Not out of luxury. Out of necessity. I was lucky that one of the oldest high schools in the United States awarded me a full scholarship. And later, the Andreas Drakopoulos Scholarship allowed me to attend the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2009, at age 21 and in the midst of the economic crisis, I got a job at Goldman Sachs and saw firsthand what Capital is. Buying someone else’s hard work on the cheap. How much arrogance money brings.

That’s why I quit that job. I took out a loan with a personal guarantee, and three years later I managed to break into the ocean-going shipping industry. Managing risk around the clock.

After a lot of hard work, I was able to breathe a huge financial sigh of relief. But there is another kind of relief, one that is much more important: it is the relief that comes with freedom.

I met Tyler when I was 31. An ICU nurse, he kept vigil by his patients’ sides while working on his Ph.D. by day. And just as I’d seen with my parents through the good times and the bad, when you find someone better than you, you do everything you can to keep them, no matter what others say.

I don't have a gay agenda. I have a human agenda. With proposals that you read a few days ago—proposals that others are afraid to voice.

An end to privileges for the few and the select; transparency in all areas; reforms in health care, education, labor, and the justice system; separation of church and state; and the abolition of mandatory military service.

I am aware that I have no prior experience in party politics. My experience lies in the workplace and in social life. My candidacy, therefore, points to a different path: From society, for society.

Several generations have been lost. The time has come to build the Greek Dream that we so desperately need. With a government that ensures equal opportunity. With citizens whose future isn’t determined by where and how they were born.

For the Greek Dream to become a reality, we must defeat those who benefit from a Greece that is a barren field rather than a Europe in action.

Do you want to pit a self-made person against Mitsotakis, the heir to the political dynasty?;

Do you want to pit against these so-called top students someone who speaks English better than they do, who has beaten them in math competitions and earned more degrees?;

Do you want to pit the Prime Minister—who claims to champion economic stability—against someone who knows more about finance and business than he does because he has worked and run his own business?;

Do you want to pit a man with empathy against Greenberg's staged Prime Minister?;

Do we want to run someone against Kyriakos Mitsotakis who will defeat him?;

I’m up for it; I’m not dependent on anyone at all; they can’t buy me off, just as they couldn’t buy off Alexis.

My candidacy is radical, just like my life.

Let’s move forward together. With a plan. The Greek Dream is not lost. Neither is SYRIZA. It’s time to be reborn. It’s time for SYRIZA to be victorious once again. It’s time for the modern left to put its ideas into action. It’s time to make every citizen proud.».

As of today, the website for Stefanos Kasselakis's political platform is live: https://www.anasigkrotisitora.gr/