The sectoral committee meeting of SYRIZA is currently underway, having opened with a speech by Alexis Tsipras. The former prime minister laid out his pre-election objective, stressing that “freeing Greece from this government for the wellbeing of the people — and not just the numbers — is a national goal.” He continued in a forceful tone, declaring that “we are the alternative to a corrupt government” and that his strategic aim is a Greece built on “integrity, democracy, and justice.”
“We will shake up those who built this regime of corruption and injustice,” he said, referencing the announcements to be made at the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF): “At TIF, we are presenting the three-pillar Plan for National Reconstruction.” Looking ahead to the party’s governance agenda, he stressed that “we will govern on terms of transformation, not of managing decay,” while keeping the “door open” for political cooperation, noting that “the only opponent of SYRIZA is Mitsotakis’s New Democracy.”
“We are launching our great outreach to the people, armed with our positions and proposals,” said Alexis Tsipras, adding that a “new governance model based on integrity, justice, growth, and productive reconstruction” would be put forward. “In our program, no announcement will be made without permanent funding,” he stated, taking a direct jab at the government’s accusations that the opposition’s proposals lack proper costing.
The SYRIZA leader, reviewing the government’s record, spoke of “seven years of divergence, inequality, corruption scandals, and cover-ups,” adding that “New Democracy cannot present itself as the solution to the very problems it created.” “Our goal is real convergence with Europe, the reduction of inequalities, and redistribution,” he emphasized.
“We are launching today — with the Thessaloniki International Fair as our first major milestone — our great push to the people. Armed with our positions and proposals, and driven by the organization, dedication, and mobilization of SYRIZA’s members and supporters,” said Alexis Tsipras.
Alexis Tsipras’s full address
“I would like to begin by warmly thanking you for the outstanding work carried out so far — work that has met our many needs and has produced significant policy elaborations as well as important public interventions.
We have an impressive participation of individuals with exceptional credentials and deep expertise across various sub-sectors. It is equally remarkable that the total number of people engaged across all working groups is approaching 200.
Equally impressive is the formation of our coalition along new organizational lines, with the digital platform playing a central role in communicating with our members and coordinating our work.
As you understand, with the end of summer and the Thessaloniki International Fair approaching, the countdown has begun. We are at the starting line of a demanding race with the upcoming national elections on the horizon.
In this race, we are called upon to stand out — not only for our energy, enthusiasm, freshness, and determination, but also for our vision, our proposals, and our alternative plan for the country. And at the same time, for a different style of doing politics. A process of giving. A sincere desire to be useful to our country, to citizens, to our political family and its ideas.
With open minds and humility, without lecturing or self-sufficiency, we must get to know one another and learn from each other, and build the necessary reflexes — both in response to the attacks we will face and, above all, in our collective effort to promote and persuade people of our positions.
Our positions — to which your contribution has been decisive — are, you should know, the true strength of SYRIZA. They were not born in some communications laboratory, crafted to tickle ears, as other parties do. They are the result of months of dialogue with society that began even before the founding of our coalition, and they have acquired their measurable form, depth, and radical realism through the contributions of people from every scientific field, as well as representatives of every social group that cares about justice and progress.
In Thessaloniki, in a few days, we will not be presenting a list of measures, but a different model of governance and economic development for the country — one oriented toward the wellbeing not just of numbers, but of people, of the great social majority.
The seven years of New Democracy have been a great missed opportunity for our country. The major achievement of exiting the bailout memoranda and the unprecedented funding opportunities that followed were squandered, leaving no positive mark on society.
No social protection infrastructure was built. No foundation was laid for a transformation of the productive model. No resilience was developed to face the challenges of the climate crisis.
At the same time, inequalities have ballooned, corruption has spread, and the gap from the European average has widened — with Greece ranking at the bottom of EU member states across all key economic and social indicators.
Meanwhile, the erosion of the rule of law — through the wiretapping scandal, the Tempi train disaster cover-up, and the relentless string of financial scandals that have made our country a permanent client of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office — represents a stain on Greece that must be cleansed.
After seven years of divergence, inequality, corruption scandals, and cover-ups, New Democracy cannot present itself as the solution to the consequences of its own governance.
What the country needs is a change of course: honest governance, independent oversight institutions, transparency and accountability for every major public expenditure.
Our responsibility is to submit to the judgment of the Greek people not scattered proposals, but a coherent vision and an alternative path.
With the aim of achieving real convergence with Europe — not only in per capita income, but also in productivity, wages, the rule of law, public health and education, housing, resilience, and the dignity of everyday life.
And also internal convergence: the reduction of inequalities and redistribution.
A National Reconstruction Plan that can be summed up in three pillars: produce more, share more fairly, live better.
And a new model of governance, equally summed up in three pillars: honest governance, fair growth, productive reconstruction.
These are the core principles of our programmatic plan, the result of a collective and painstaking effort carried out over the past months with your contribution.
A plan in which no announcement will be made without permanent funding, and no permanent expenditure will be tied to one-off revenues — all within a framework of respect for fiscal rules. But also with the deep conviction that fiscal credibility does not mean social stagnation.
At this point, allow me a personal remark.
Because, in response to our positions as they are presented in daily political debate — and especially ahead of our presence in Thessaloniki — government representatives, clearly following a line set by the Prime Minister’s office, are systematically claiming that Tsipras is unrepentant.
I want to repeat something I also underlined in Ithaca: I confess my guilt. I remain unrepentant in my pursuit of a Greece of integrity, democracy, and justice. And from that line, SYRIZA will never, under any circumstances, deviate.
This line — this vision, this strategic goal — is what unites and drives our coalition.
Our ambition is not to occupy some prominent seat in a worn-out and in many ways wounded political system. It is to achieve, through the mobilization and support of our people, political change. And something far greater and more essential for the lives of the many: a change of policy. Whatever clashes with entrenched interests, with corruption networks, with the stereotypes of conservatism that may be required.
We are therefore preparing to fight this battle. We will use every democratic tool at our disposal to win.
But we are preparing — and let everyone keep this in mind — not only to fight the battle, but to govern. Because we know full well that we have no other choice. We are the alternative to a worn-out, corrupt, and failed government. And that fills us with a heavy sense of responsibility.
We are therefore preparing to govern — not on terms of managing decline, but on terms of reversing it.
On terms of policy change, change of direction, change in the relationship between the state and the citizen, change in the economy, in labor relations, in the treatment of the middle class and of entrepreneurship.
In short, we do not seek to settle comfortably in power, but to unsettle those who built and sustain the current regime of corruption and injustice for their own benefit — political and financial.
This strategy also defines our opponent. The only opponent of SYRIZA is the current government: New Democracy under Mr. Mitsotakis, responsible and accountable for all the wounds inflicted on society and the country in recent years.
The decision, goal, aspiration, and collective effort of our coalition is to free Greece from this government.
No distraction, no artificial obstacle — from wherever it may come — will divert us from this goal. A goal that, under these circumstances, is not a party goal. It is, I would say, a national goal.
The goal of freeing the country from the forces that keep it locked in backwardness, corruption, the undermining of the rule of law, social fragmentation, and a dangerous stagnation in every sense of the word.
Our strategy — along with SYRIZA’s forceful entry into the political system and the fact that it is challenging, in realistic electoral terms, New Democracy’s ability to act unchecked — naturally makes us their primary target. And the primary target, of course, of all those who profit from, feed off, and enjoy easy gains and impunity under the government’s umbrella.
For all of them, we are today the main target. The main enemy, I would say.
They are resorting to — and will continue to resort to until election day — every means, every myth, every slander, every lie, to block our path. And to block Greece’s path toward a different direction, one that is uncomfortable and hostile to their interests.
The distortion of reality, the prosperity of numbers, the handouts and ribbon-cutting ceremonies of Mr. Mitsotakis — which have multiplied in recent weeks — simply confirm their insecurity and fear ahead of the upcoming elections.
The great majority of Greeks, as reflected in the polls, is calling for a change of policy and relief from the current governance of injustice that has become the norm.
Relief from the regime of high prices, insecurity, indifference to the collapse of the national health service and public education, the regime of corruption with its party of direct contract awards, and the undermining of the rule of law.
Every worker, every family, every young person seeking a future with dignity, every family forced to keep renting — they all know from their own experience what lies behind the image of prosperity projected by government propaganda.
We will persist in exposing every dimension of their policies and their real, and in many cases truly tragic, consequences for the majority of society.
But the key, the primary thing that will open the door to progress, is to systematically, calmly, with arguments and a willingness for dialogue, convince citizens that there is another way. The path we are proposing — but one that only they can open with their vote and their participation.
So we are launching today, with the Thessaloniki International Fair as our first major milestone, our great outreach to the people. Armed with our positions and proposals, and driven by the organization, dedication, and mobilization of SYRIZA’s members and supporters.
It is a difficult task to awaken and mobilize our society. But it is worth every effort.
Thank you.”
Tsipras’s party in full campaign mode ahead of the Thessaloniki International Fair
It should be noted that on Saturday morning, the party’s Political Committee is also set to convene, with the coordination and planning of the upcoming pre-election period on the agenda.
The trigger for the back-to-back meetings of SYRIZA’s governing bodies is the set of announcements to be made in Thessaloniki. However, the substance of these meetings is essentially the planning of moves and strategies for conducting a months-long election campaign. After all, Alexis Tsipras has never hidden the fact that the party’s goal is to win the next elections — whether that is achieved in the first or the second round of voting.
