The most critical press conference of recent years will be given tonight (5.30 pm) by Alexis Tsipras in Thessaloniki, in the context of the TIF.
Not only because he now bears the title of president of a new party that he himself founded, ELAS, but because he will have to, through his answers, convince that the program he presented last week moves in favor of “the many” and is not lost in compliance with fiscal rules.
A key bet for Mr. Tsipras is to prove the correctness of his admission: that in 2025 he knew what he wanted, but did not know exactly how to achieve it, whereas now, having the prime ministerial experience, he can draw up a program and implement it.
Through the interview (which is expected to last much longer than others, as many questions will be asked) Mr. Tsipras will have to shed light on aspects of the program, if of course he assumes the premiership again: what he will do/give in the first year, what extends over a four-year period and what will find full implementation over the decade.
And this because he and his associates have made it clear that ELAS's program is a “coherent governance plan” that is not called upon to distribute the existing wealth more fairly, perhaps, but aims at increasing it through the productive reconstruction of the country.
It is considered certain that Mr. Tsipras will specify the famous “patriotic contribution” and the taxation of 1% of great wealth, but will also explain why the program is sparing in “breathing spaces” on issues such as pensions.
He will also explain positions, such as the one on private universities, as ELAS clarified in July that it does not raise the issue of abolishing them because students have already enrolled (“legal certainty”), while at the same time declaring that Article 16 of the Constitution, which defines the public character of higher education, should not be revised.
PASOK on “the instructor of Tsipras' party”
The expected reference to the possibility of post-election governmental collaborations - and with whom - was overshadowed yesterday by the position developed in the public dialogue by Giorgos Siakantaris, head of the group that wrote the “Manifesto” of ELAS, and it has already become... a top issue for PASOK.
On the occasion of the election result in Saxony, Germany, where the far-right AfD recorded a strong first place, but did not win an outright majority, with the result that discussion has opened about possible cooperation among the other parties in order to block its path to the local government, Mr. Siakantaris projected this onto the domestic dilemma about collaborations.
“Imagine if SPD (i.e. the socialists) and Die Linke (i.e. the left) were faced with the dilemma of cooperating with Merz (i.e. the right-winger) or letting Germany fall into the hands of the AfD? And they had decided at their congresses that they would never cooperate with the Right. Something like this happened 93 years ago, but then no one wanted to cooperate with the other. While the Right and the Center thought they would be able to manipulate Hitler”, he wrote.
The reference “to the congresses” pointed to the decision of PASOK's congress (in March) that it would not cooperate again with ND, something that was heavily exploited by Charilaou Trikoupi.
State MP Panagiotis Doudonis opened the dance by calling Mr. Siakantaris “the ideological instructor of Tsipras' party”. And not only that, since he attributed to him an intention for ND-ELAS cooperation, because, as he states, there is a convergence of views between the two parties.
The issue was also “picked up” by other PASOK officials and they will keep it at the forefront of their statements today, in an effort to create a negative climate for Mr. Tsipras and pressure him to take a position at the press conference.