“The invisible tax of corruption deprives social policy of resources” and “if I am prime minister during the Greek presidency (of the European Union) I will emphasize the need to increase spending for social cohesion through the taxation of large multinationals and carbon emissions.”
This position, among others, was expressed by Alexis Tsipras in his interview with POLITICO, also calling on the government “to stop giving a blank check to the US in foreign policy.”
On defense spending, he stressed that if only that increases and not spending for social cohesion, “in a few years the EU will have better defense but far-right governments.”
Adding that “every euro lost in direct awards and embezzlement of European funds is a euro lost from hospitals and schools.”
Excerpts from the interview in POLITICO as presented by the “Alexis Tsipras Institute”:
The former prime minister and president of ELAS states that Greece must “cool” its excessively close relationship with the MAGA movement.
Describing his agenda ahead of the general elections expected by next spring, he criticized current conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for having made excessive concessions to the United States.
He contrasted him with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who ruled out the use of Spanish military bases by American forces
While much of Europe is moving away from the MAGA movement, Greece is strengthening its relationship even further with US President Donald Trump.
The Mitsotakis government has granted the United States indefinite access to critical military bases across the country — including the main naval base in Crete -instead of providing for regular renewal of the agreement with renegotiation of the terms.
Alexis Tsipras believes that K. Mitsotakis has crossed the line.
“Greek-American relations have a strategic character and must be governed by the principle of mutual benefit”, he said. “The government is pursuing a policy of a ‘blank check’ and this does not serve our national interests.”
The 51-year-old Tsipras argued that priority in the use of military bases should be Greece’s own security and not simply satisfying American demands.
“This issue emerged with particular intensity during the recent war in Iran. We saw what the reaction of the Greek prime minister was and what that of the Spanish prime minister was.”
His campaign position that Greece should maintain greater distance from Washington appears aimed at expressing the widespread distrust of Greek public opinion toward Donald Trump. According to a Pew Research Center survey in late June, only 22% of Greeks who took part in the survey said they trust the US president regarding the handling of international affairs.
Mr. Tsipras, who lost power in 2019, became internationally known as the leader of SYRIZA, the radical party that clashed with Brussels and Berlin in successive rounds of tough negotiations, at the peak of the eurozone debt crisis.
In May he founded a new political party called EL.A.S., aiming to unite the fragmented opposition against Mitsotakis’ New Democracy. It has already emerged as the second political force in Greece, although it still remains significantly behind the prime minister. According to POLITICO’s aggregate polling analysis (Poll of Polls), New Democracy stands at 30% and EL.A.S. at 17%.
The elections are expected to be held before Greece assumes the rotating presidency of the EU Council in July 2027.
If he is prime minister during that presidency, Alexis Tsipras said he will emphasize spending on cohesion policy, aimed at reducing economic inequalities among the regions of the European Union, while leaving open the possibility of imposing higher taxation on large businesses.
“Social cohesion must be strengthened and the European Union’s own resources must be increased. This means there must be the political will to tax multinational companies, as well as carbon emissions”, he said.
Given the threats to Europe’s security, Alexis Tsipras agreed that investment in the defense sector must increase, but not at the expense of social spending.
“If that happens, in a few years we will find ourselves with a European Union that will be stronger in defense, but will be governed by far-right governments.”
The “tax of corruption” in Greece
Tsipras still faces the major challenge that Kyriakos Mitsotakis remains firmly in first place in the polls.
Despite the fact that a series of major scandals have shaken the country -including the government’s problematic handling of the deadly railway accident in Greece and the extensive fraud involving European agricultural funds- the government has maintained its lead, partly thanks to the intense fragmentation of the opposition.
Alexis Tsipras argues that this is precisely why he created his new political movement. “The picture is not positive for the government”, he says, “but it is rather negative for the opposition, and that is why EL.A.S. was created.”
He even stressed that citizens’ outrage over corruption should ultimately lead to political change.
He cited polls according to which about 70% of Greeks want political change, about 90% believe corruption is widespread, while about 55% say they lived better in 2019 than they do today.
He noted that Greek households have faced over the past seven years a “double blow”: the high cost of living and widespread corruption.
Annual inflation in Greece stood at 5.2% in May 2026, exceeding the eurozone average, which was 3.2%. According to the 2026 UBS Global Wealth Report, wealth inequality has increased, as fewer and fewer people benefit from the increase in total wealth.
Although total net wealth has been steadily increasing since 2020, the gap between the rich and the general population continues to widen.
“We have the invisible tax of corruption -and I call it a tax, because I believe that the cost of the extensive and unprecedented levels of corruption in Greece is so great that it deprives social policy of resources”, Alexis Tsipras said.
“Every euro lost through direct awards in public tenders and through the embezzlement of European funds is a euro missing from public schools, teachers’ salaries, public hospitals, and nurses’ pay,” he added.
Asked about the political consequences of his reputation as a radical and unpredictable politician from the period of the eurozone crisis, Tsipras replied that many remember his governance only for the first six turbulent months, when Athens was on the brink of exiting the eurozone.
He, however, presented himself as the leader of the government that ultimately managed to stabilize the situation.
“An effort is being made to focus the discussion only on the first six months of the government, from January to July 2015. But there is also the period before and after. The country did not enter the crisis because of our own policies… We ended up with a difficult agreement, through conflicts and tensions, but we put an end to the memoranda, restored the credibility of the economy, and achieved positive growth rates.”