The proposal by party leader Stefanos Kasselakis to replace veteran cadre and MP Socrates Famelos as head of the leftist party's parliamentary group with another deputy, former minister Nikos Pappas, sparked the most recent internal strife within the main opposition SYRIZA on Tuesday.

In the party that is trailing the polls, the latter is thought to be one of the former's surviving allies.

Famelos duly refused to resign from the post and challenged Kasselakis to table a motion of censure against him, one that will be voted on in a secret ballot by members of the party’s central committee.

Kasselakis himself participated in the relevant meeting via video call, which added to the party's ongoing appearance of chaos and internal strife between opposing factions. Kasselakis, a newcomer to Greece’s gritty political scene and the surprise winner of an internal party president election last year, also proposed a change of personnel in several other key party positions.

In a bid to defuse a crisis that has all the hallmarks of another party split, two prominent deputies reportedly called for the central committee session to adjourn without its members voting to take any decisions at this point.