Former prime minister Alexis Tsipras formally launched a new political party, the Greek Left Alliance, or ELAS, on Tuesday, presenting it as a vehicle for a “new Greece,” while sharply attacking both the conservative government and the country’s traditional center-left establishment.
Speaking at an event in central Athens with the Acropolis in the background, Tsipras said the new movement would be “more than a party” and would represent “a broad political tradition.” He said Greece could no longer “watch passively as society suffocates and the country steadily loses prestige.”
Tsipras framed the launch as an effort to mobilize voters who had withdrawn from political life, focusing on low wages, housing pressures, insecurity, the rising cost of living and what he described as the erosion of social rights and democratic standards.
He accused Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government of corruption, saying “extrajudicial centers of interest influence or even control political parties and governments.” He also criticized PASOK, arguing that Greece’s two traditional parties had become “the system within the system” and were dependent on banks because of their debts.
The new party’s founding declaration outlined seven priorities, including “life with dignity,” stronger democratic oversight, fair economic development, social protections, climate and energy security, digital sovereignty and a more active foreign policy.
Tsipras also called for what he described as a “moral revolution” and a “new patriotism” linked to social justice and democratic accountability.
The launch immediately intensified tensions across Greece’s political landscape. During a cabinet meeting, Mitsotakis said the emergence of new parties was making the political scene “more complex,” accusing newly emerging or returning political figures of recycling “old ideas” under different guises.
Former prime minister Kostas Karamanlis separately criticized the government’s handling of Greek-Turkish relations and warned that “formally legal surveillance” practices damage democracy, in remarks widely interpreted as a reference to the wiretapping scandal.
PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis also accused Mitsotakis of undermining institutional credibility after the government renewed central bank governor Yannis Stournaras’ term, while party officials questioned whether Tsipras’ new movement could eventually cooperate politically with New Democracy itself.
*Publsihed first on ekathimerini.com
By: N. Peter Kramer
