Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the left-wing opposition in Greece, announced Thursday his decision to leave the leadership of his Syriza party, four days after his bitter defeat against the all-powerful right-wing New Democracy of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Former Prime Minister in the midst of a financial and migration crisis between 2015 and 2019, and at the reins of his party since 2009, Alexis Tsipras, 48, has decided to throw in the towel and announced elections within his party in which he will not will not be a candidate.
“There are times when crucial decisions have to be made,” said Alexis Tsipras in a statement to the media in Athens after a meeting of his party’s executive board.
“A chapter is closing and a new one must be opened for our party” which “needs renewal and important reforms”, he told reporters at Zappeion, the official press conference building in the center from Athens.
As of Sunday evening, at the announcement of the first partial results of the legislative elections, Alexis Tsipras had admitted a “negative result” for his party and mentioned “the need to make difficult decisions”.
Syriza won only 17.84% of the vote (48 seats in Parliament), a gap of more than 20 points with New Democracy (ND) not even managing to maintain its score of 20% in the previous election May 21.
His party comes second after the right ND, which achieved its best score in recent decades with 40.55% of the vote, securing 158 seats of deputies out of the 300 in the unicameral Greek parliament.
During the previous setback on May 21, Alexis Tsipras admitted to having considered resigning but he finally decided to “continue the battle”.
Many analysts had then estimated that his days at the head of Syriza now appear to be numbered.
“I’m used to not making decisions in the heat of the moment,” said Thursday the pugnacious forties, who had embodied the hope of the anti-austerity left in Europe when he was elected to power. in Greece in January 2015 in the midst of the financial crisis.
“I took the time to reflect for three days to decide with composure,” he said.
After a standoff with the creditors, EU and IMF, who then waved the threat of the country’s exit from the euro, the former Prime Minister had to bow to their dictates for strict austerity before succeeding. the country’s exit from the crisis and economic recovery.
Breaking then with the hardliners of his party, this former communist and “outsider” at the time of a Greek political life dominated by large families opens up to the center left and again succeeds in winning the elections of September 2015.
“When I was elected leader of the party, at the age of 34, Syriza was a small left-wing party (…) before becoming the main progressive formation in Greece”, recalled Thursday Alexis Tsipras, first ruling leader of the radical left in his country and Europe.
– “difficult journey”
However, his political reversal cost him the loss of many of his supporters before his first defeat against the right of Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the 2019 legislative elections.
“This difficult journey that we made had compromises and difficult decisions, traumas and wear and tear,” he acknowledged.
He stressed that “the priority now was the new Syriza, the quality of our democracy, the resistance to the ND and the front against the far right and neo-fascism which found its place in the new Parliament”.
With the collapse of Syriza, Sunday’s elections were marked by a shift to the right of the Greek Parliament and the election of deputies from three small nationalist or far-right parties.
06/29/2023 16:14:07 – Athens (AFP) – © 2023 AFP