2023-06-30 00:02:09
Alexis Tsipras, leader of the left-wing opposition in Greece and former prime minister, announces that he is leaving the leadership of the Syriza party on Thursday June 29. SPYROS BAKALIS / AFP
Without a tie, as usual, with a sad look, Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the left opposition in Greece, leader of the Syriza party and former prime minister (2015-2019), bowed out on Thursday June 29. He is leaving the leadership of the party he held for fourteen years, four days after his crushing defeat against Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the conservative prime minister (New Democracy).
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On Sunday June 25, Syriza won only 17.84% of the vote (48 seats in Parliament), ie more than 20 points difference with New Democracy. In 2019, the left-wing party achieved an honorable score of 31%.
The resignation of this 48-year-old left-wing troublemaker, who embodied during his election as prime minister in 2015 the resistance to austerity imposed by the country’s creditors (ECB, EU, IMF) was expected after three electoral failures successive.
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“A chapter is closing and a new one must open for our party” said Alexis Tsipras, admitting to being “ moved ». “At only 34, I took the reins of a small left-wing party. The journey we made together was dangerous, full of pitfalls but exciting. From a small party, Syriza has become the main progressive movement in Greece, and the first left-wing party in Europe to govern in historic moments for the country”, underlined the forties with hair, now, graying. In 2009, Syriza obtained only 4.6% of the vote, while in 2015, it had reached 36.3%.
Prime Minister at 40
Charismatic and a good speaker, Alexis Tsipras began his career in the student movements at the Ecole Polytechnique. At just 25, he was secretary general of youth for Syriza, before running for mayor of Athens at the age of 32, then becoming prime minister at the age of 40.
In 2015, the man whom the press nicknamed the “Greek Mélenchon”, the “outsider” who did not come from any major political family, listened to the Greek people who felt humiliated and tired after already five years of austerity plans. He promises to ” rip “ the memoranda. But he very quickly finds himself faced with an intransigent European Union, and particularly Germany, who want Greece to pay attention to its finances and repay its debt.
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In July 2015, Alexis Tsipras suggested that the Greeks vote for or against yet another package of reforms. Despite the “no” from the citizens, faced with the threat of Greece leaving the euro zone, the head of government backed down and implemented new austerity measures. He submits again to the vote of the Greeks after having made this painful concession. The gamble works, he is re-elected. But this turnaround in the summer of 2015 will cost him dearly: part of the electorate on the left will never accept it, feeling “betrayed”, while the right will accuse him of having been irresponsible and of having risked the future of the country.
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