Alexis Tsipras, the man who once put the European Union in check, has abandoned the Syriza ship that led the most turbulent years of the Greek crisis and with which he has planted opposition in recent years to the turn to the right for which citizens have chosen at the polls.
“There are certain moments when you have to make critical decisions. Now I have the experience not to make decisions on the spur of the moment. To decide calmly. And that’s what I did for 24 hours. Because I know very well that my decisions are too they affect other people. In my statement on the night of the elections, I said that Syriza has already closed a great historical cycle that we must value with pride and we must open a next cycle,” said the leader of the leftist party when announcing his resignation in a televised speech.
His resignation was something that was assumed after three consecutive electoral failures: in 2019, when the conservative Kyriakos Misotakis wrested power from him by an absolute majority; and in the recent double electoral test of May and June in which the vote gap with New Democracy was already insurmountable.
“At the age of 34 I took charge of a small left-wing party, the first in Europe to govern in incredibly difficult circumstances, with society in shambles and a bankrupt economy. I was lucky to be the first left-wing prime minister of the country in history”, Tsipras recalled during his farewell and announced that he will not be a candidate for the Presidency of the party – which is now beginning “a process of profound renewal” – but that he will be “present before, during and after”.
In the last two campaigns, Tsipras has opted for a strategy of direct attack on Mitsotakis, whom he has accused of wanting to turn his government into a “regime.” On the contrary, the prime minister, who revalidated his absolute majority last Sunday, has focused his speech on a positive agenda for the future of Greece, with emphasis placed on the economy and on a package of crucial reforms in the public administration to achieve “an effective State in a strong country”.
After the resignation of his rival, Mitsotakis affirmed that the decision was “expected after the three crushing defeats” and that “a circle is closed” for Syriza. “It is a party that in recent years, both in government and in opposition, has been identified with toxicity, with divisive discourse and with a deafening inefficiency when it was finally called upon to manage the country’s fortunes,” Mitsotakis added today to his arrival at the European Council summit in Brussels.
The withdrawal of Tsipras from the political front line opens up an uncertain future for the party and presents an opportunity for the Socialist Party (PASOK), which is making a strong comeback after a decade of stagnation due to the toll of the crisis period. The objective of the leader of the Socialists, Nikos Androulakis, is to recover the space of the center left in Greece, overcome Syriza in the elections to the European Parliament in June 2024 and, finally, lead the opposition.
This scenario would return the Hellenic country to traditional bipartisan politics, in which New Democracy and PASOK have historically alternated in power, until the irruption of the radical left of Syriza in a Greece suffocated by EU cuts and that demanded changes. . After the hard years of crisis, Tsipras tried to present himself with a more moderate profile, measuring his attacks on Brussels and trying to unite -during the campaign last May- the specter of the Greek left in a great progressive coalition that would unseat the Conservatives. But the division between these parties runs deep and neither showed interest in Syriza’s offer.
“Alexis Tsipras took a protest party with an electoral result close to 3% and led him to govern Greece in a very difficult period. Some consider him politically charismatic, while others call him a populist. In my opinion, both statements are correct But, in addition, he often displayed opportunistic attitudes while, as demonstrated in the first months of 2015, he lacked basic public management skills.After the financial crisis and especially from 2019, he had the opportunity to bring Syriza closer to the center. I think he did not make an effort and the defeat of Syriza in the last elections was a consequence of it”, analyzes the Greek journalist and expert on European politics John Papageorgiou.
Syriza will now have to learn to navigate again without Tsipras and look for a leader capable of reviving the party. The Parliamentary Group will decide next Monday who will lead the formation until the election of the new president by the bases. The process will not be easy because there is no clear favorite to succeed. The Greek media also point out that an intense debate is expected within the formation on the responsibility for the bad electoral results, while internal power struggles will open up between the candidates, who will try to impose their agenda for the new Syriza cycle.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project