ATHENS – Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced the formation of a new party, adding to the country’s fragmented political landscape as it enters an election year.
“Today, a new political force is being born with the goal not only of political change, but primarily of policy change,” Mr Tsipras said in a speech on May 26.
The name of his party is Elas, which stands for Greek Left Coalition and sounds like the word for Greece in the local language.
The new group by the former premier will join an already crowded field, which could curtail the ability of the next election winner to form a stable government, echoing a pattern seen elsewhere in Europe.
Mr Tsipras, 51, became known across the globe as a leftist firebrand who entered into a six-month clash with creditors that nearly caused Greece to exit the euro area in 2015.
His return to frontline politics comes as the country gears up to hold national elections within the next year.
While a ballot isn’t due until June 2027, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has repeatedly said that he’ll hold the vote next spring so that Greece has a stable government by the time it takes over the European Union’s rotating presidency in July 2027.
Mr Mitsotakis still maintains a strong lead over opposition candidates, but could see his powers constrained if his centre-right New Democracy party falls short of the support it needs to govern alone, something polls suggest is likely.
Mr Tsipras aims to capitalise on voters’ growing discontent, which is largely driven by an increase in the cost of living and spiralling housing costs.
All recent polls show that high prices are among the top concerns for voters, an issue that’s been further exacerbated by the war in Iran.
The former premier’s announcement comes less than week after another political movement was formed by Ms Maria Karystianou, a mother who lost her daughter in Greece’s deadliest train crash in 2023.
While polls only track existing parties, all the latest surveys suggest that her movement could appeal to a significant share of voters.
Over the past year the ruling New Democracy party has also faced mounting pressure over European Union probes into alleged farm-subsidy fraud, an ongoing investigation that has led to several ministers stepping down – though they all deny wrongdoing.
With his new initiative, Mr Tsipras said he wants to “to restore trust where disappointment currently prevails, to restore perspective where it has been lost.”
Mr Tsipras, who was the president of the leftist Syriza party, became prime minister in early 2015, promising to get rid of Greece’s international bailouts that started in 2010 and ushered in a period of severe austerity.
Almost a third of the work force couldn’t find a job at the peak of the decade-long debt crisis.
As prime minister he tried to re-negotiate the terms of the programmes that kept the country afloat and even held a referendum in the summer of the same year, in which citizens overwhelmingly rejected austerity amid the closure of the country’s banks.
Ultimately, he signed on to Greece’s third – and final – bailout, which his government implemented until its conclusion in 2018.
Mr Tsipras resigned from the leadership of Syriza in 2023, after his second consecutive electoral defeat to Mr Mitsotakis.
He remained member of Syriza’s parliamentary group until last October when he stepped down, signalling that he wanted to pursue a political career outside of his old party. BLOOMBERG
