Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras holds the founding declaration of a new party during the official launch of a new player on the Greek political floor. Photo: AP
Return of the written off: Tsipras tries to unite the Greek opposition
Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has announced his return after several months of absence from the Greek political scene. With his new party, the Alliance of the Greek Left (ELAS), he plans to unite the fragmented Greek opposition. He intends to stand up for the fight against corruption and sustainable economic growth.
With the former finance minister To Janis Varoufakis was his boss, a former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, one of the most recognizable faces of Greek politics in the last two decades. He led the left-wing Syriza party during Greece’s deep debt crisis for as many as fifteen years (from 2008 to 2023), and for four years he was also the Prime Minister of Greece, when he had to agree to harsh austerity measures in exchange for the third European rescue package for Greece.
After the end of Syriza’s rule, the right-wing New Democracy took power in Greece. Due to its re-victory in the parliamentary elections in 2023 and the severe defeat of Syriza, Tsipras then left the position of party president, and a year later (October 2025) he also resigned as a member of the party’s parliament, thus triggering speculation that he was founding a new party.
Focused on social issues
This was definitively confirmed now, when he presented his new leftist party – the Alliance of the Greek Left (ELAS). A good year before the parliamentary elections, the 51-year-old politician guarantees that ELAS will be the bearer of the “new Greece”. With it, he plans to unite the opposition against the conservative government Kyriakos Mitotakiswho he accused of corruption, mainly due to scandals involving the misuse of European funds in the field of agriculture. He wants to mobilize voters who have lost confidence in both the ruling party and the opposition Pasok party.
According to Tsipras, Greece can no longer passively observe how society is suffocating and the country is gradually losing its reputation: “Our country is steadily regressing and moving away from what we call the European legal order. Speculation, corruption and collusion have become a common way of acquiring wealth and power in modern Greece. Today, a new political force is being born, which strives not only for political change, but also for policy change.”
In its progressive orientation, the party will focus mainly on social issues – on low wages, housing problems and the rising cost of living. He promised higher incomes for all, an inclusive migration policy and sustainable economic growth based on agriculture and manufacturing.
