Alexis Tsipras’s return to the political spotlight was not merely a matter of a routine party announcement. It was a carefully orchestrated political relaunch, imbued with strong ideological, historical, and emotional significance.From the backdrop of the Acropolis to the final video showing citizens receiving the founding declaration as a symbolic “legacy,” yesterday’s event at Thiseio demonstrated that the former prime minister is now investing far more in forginga political identity thanin a mere electoral comeback.
Even the name of the new party—Greek Left Alliance (ELAS)—cannot, quite rightly, be considered a mere coincidence. It is a choice with strong historical and political connotations, which simultaneously evokes the national resistance, the civil war, the concept of “homeland,” but also an attempt to reconnect the Left with patriotic rhetoric.
And that was precisely the core of yesterday’s speech: the so-called “new patriotism.”
A patriotism that Mr. Tsipras sought to link to social justice,
resistance to inequality, the defense of the rule of law, criticism of the oligarchy,
but also a more “multidimensional” foreign policy.
His speech was at once accusatory, mobilizing, and intensely emotional. From Gaza and Ukraine to Tempi, wiretapping, OPEKEPE, the housing crisis, and inflation, he sought to construct a unified narrative of decline: of a country that—in his view—is sliding into institutional, social, and economic decline.
This was not merely opposition rhetoric. It was a comprehensive attempt atthemoral and politicaldelegitimization of thecurrent system of power.
And at the same time, an effort to reconstitute the entire space to the left of center, through the “convergence of the three historical currents”: the Radical Left, Social Democracy, and Political Ecology.
In this sense, yesterday’s event clearly bore the hallmarks of a founding declaration of a new political movement, rather than simply another party.
Here, however, the “difficulties” begin. For despite the intensity of the indictment and the clear effort to create a new political narrative, Mr. Tsipras remainedextremely vagueon the crucial terrain of applied policy.
The seven “commitments” he presented mainly described goals and value-based directions: decent wages, the welfare state, productive reconstruction, institutional transparency, housing policy, the green transition, and a new foreign policy.
However, very little was said about exactly how these wouldbe financed,implemented, orhow theywould clash withthe actual power structures he himself described.
Moreover, it remained unclear whichindividuals, whichofficials, andwhichgovernmental mechanismcould implement this “New Metapolitefsi” he invoked.
And this is not a minor issue. For Greek society does indeed appear weary of inflation, the housing crisis, institutional distrust, the sense of impunity, and the gradual deterioration of quality of life.
This climate could indeed make a new discourse of social and political dissent appealing. However, the experience of the past fifteen years has also made citizens more skeptical of grand proclamations.
And ultimately, any serious claim to power is judged not only by its ability to describe the impasses, but above all by its ability to convince that it offers a realistic, feasible, and credible alternative.