Former Greek prime minister launches new left-wing party

Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has launched a new left-wing party, seeking to unite the country’s fragmented opposition ahead of elections expected next year.

Speaking Tuesday at a rally in central Athens with the Acropolis illuminated behind him, the former leader of Syriza said his new political formation, called the Greek Left Alliance (ELAS), would form “a broad progressive alliance” bringing together “the radical left, social democracy and political ecology.”

“This is the governing left of the new era,” Tsipras told thousands of supporters gathered in Thiseio. The event was broadcast live on television and social media.

Tsipras rose to prominence during Greece’s debt crisis, when his Syriza government clashed with European leaders over austerity measures before losing power in 2019.

Since then, Greek politics has been dominated by the conservative New Democracy party led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which remains comfortably ahead in opinion polls.

In his speech, Tsipras accused the current government of presiding over political and moral decline, saying the Greek state had “fallen into the hands of a caste that treats it as spoils.”

He cited corruption allegations, the Tempe rail disaster and wiretapping claims as evidence that Greece was “steadily regressing” and drifting away from European democratic standards.

He said the new party would build on Greece’s “great progressive political and national traditions.”