Greece
After election: left-wing politician Tsipras gives up party chairmanship
“As paradoxical as it may seem, the bad election result can also be a new beginning for Syriza”: Alexis Tsipras. photo
© Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/AP/dpa
He draws the consequences of the electoral disaster of his left-wing party Syriza. Ex-Prime Minister Tsipras no longer wants to run for party chairmanship.
After the heavy electoral defeat of the left-wing Syriza party in the Greek parliamentary elections last Sunday, the party leader Alexis Tsipras announced his resignation from the presidency. Tsipras said at a press conference in Athens that he would no longer stand as a candidate in the upcoming board elections.
Tsipras had already suffered a serious defeat in the parliamentary elections in May: Syriza, with which he led Greece as Prime Minister from 2015 to 2019 through the severe financial crisis, fell by more than 11.5 percentage points to 20 percent of the vote. In the second election last Sunday, Syriza slipped further to 17.8 percent. It was the fifth election in a row that Tsipras lost.
Tsipras announced that he would stick with it as a politician. “As paradoxical as it may seem, the bad election result can also be a new beginning for Syriza,” he said. The party had been heavily tailored to him since 2012, and a serious successor was never established. While there are well-known and well-loved senior leaders, none have made it into position. So it could be that many party members appeal to the previous boss Tsipras to continue as a top power.