Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras often knows how to surprise. Four days after the parliamentary elections in Greece, he resigned from the position of president of the left-wing Syriza. He thereby took responsibility for the defeat of his party. Syriza won 17,8 percent of the vote on Sunday, and four years ago it had more than 31 percent.
Completely unexpectedly, Tsipras called a press conference and gave up the role of opposition leader. No one in the Greek media expected such a quick resignation. "Syriza has ended a great historical cycle with this - let's start a new cycle together," Tsipras called on the members of his party.
It will be a cycle in which he will not be at the head of the party. He will not run for party leader in the upcoming elections. But it will be at the party congress, announced Tsipras, adding that he has full confidence in the party's potential to elect a capable leadership. In his speech, he emphasized that there are moments in life when important decisions must be made, and that such a moment for him and his party has come now. At the same time, he emphasized that he had thought carefully about that move. The goal, he says, is to restore Syriza, whereby the signs of the times must be correctly interpreted and all challenges must be responded to appropriately.
From marginal to ruling party
Tsipras said he was proud of the "often dangerous journey" he undertook with his comrades. "Syriza is the first left-wing party in Europe to take over government affairs in an EU member state. I was the first left-wing prime minister in Europe." He ended his emotional speech with the words: "New Syriza can once again become hope for a better future." His decision to resign also serves that purpose, Tsipras said.
Tsipras's surprises began in 2006 when he ran for mayor of Athens with the "Open City" party. He was 32 years old and almost unknown, but he won 10,5 percent of the vote. It was the biggest success of the left in the capital of Greece until then. After that, the whole country knew who Tsipras was.
At the age of 34, he was elected president of the Sinaspismos party. The Party of Reformed Communists won five percent of the vote in the 2007 parliamentary elections. The decision to vote for the young Tsipras was viewed by many with disdain.
A losing battle against Schäuble
In the next few years, he managed to turn the small Sinaspismos party into a ruling one. In the 2012 elections, a new, more radical party, Syriza, won 26,9 percent of the vote and became the second strongest party in the Greek parliament.
In the European Parliament elections in 2014, Tsipras was the leading candidate of the Left and became known throughout Europe as a revolutionary when he decided to oppose German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble at the time of the debt crisis and austerity dictates in the EU. He failed in that.
But with that policy in Greece in the 2015 elections, Syriza won 36 percent of the vote. Tsipras became the first left-wing Greek prime minister – true, in a coalition with the right-wing populist party Independent Greeks (ANEL).
Tsipras and his comrades thought at the time that they could convince the EU finance ministers to abandon the dictates of austerity and the imposed reform program. They were mistaken.
The government was not corrupt
The pressure for Greece to leave the EU has become extremely high. Tsipras tried to save himself with a strange referendum in which Greeks decided whether to accept the reforms imposed by the European Union. In the summer of 2015, the Greeks rejected the reforms in a referendum, but Tsipras eventually had to give in and sign the third bailout package for Greece. This ended the Greek rebellion.
After that, Tsipras resigned from the position of the president of the Greek government, he won the elections again in September 2015. The second Tsipras government, again in coalition with ANEL, fulfilled the terms of the creditors and in 2018 brought the country out of the so-called of the "protective umbrella" of the EU. She managed to help the most vulnerable in Greek society. And one more thing: that government was not corrupt, as is usual in Greece. However, the Government did not undertake important reforms at the state level even then.
The greatest merit
In foreign policy, Alexis Tsipras was extremely brave. And successful. Together with Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, he resolved the historic dispute over the name of the former Yugoslav republic, which seemed unsolvable, because the province in northern Greece is also called Macedonia.
The Prespa Agreement, by which Macedonia became North Macedonia, was a historic decision for the peace and stability of the entire Southeastern Europe - and almost the only really good news in the Balkans for more than three decades.
Alexis Tsipras is now 49 years old. He is too young to retire politically. It is not yet known what he will do in the future. It is very likely that in the coming days, he will first of all play a little with his children.
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