The interview of Alexis Tsipras in Efimerida ton Syntakton naturally sparked extensive discussions among Left-wing officials, as the former prime minister attempted to maintain a safe distance from SYRIZA figures while simultaneously signaling his intentions by addressing all citizens, including anti-establishment voters, emphasizing his integrity.
Alexis Tsipras implied that what concerns him is not attacks from opponents regarding his five years governing the country, but whether citizens will choose to forgive him, giving him a second chance. “In society’s pool, trusting in the people’s strength – this is my decision. I may have lost my parliamentary privileges, but I am at least free to claim the privilege of walking alongside the many. I don’t dare say ‘as one of them.’ But yes, I would like to be with them ‘as one of them,'” Tsipras stated, taking his resignation rationale one step further.
Read: The two faces from Tsipras’s inner circle who are a “red flag” for Polakis
How SYRIZA “reads” the Tsipras interview
Over the past weekend, SYRIZA officials and MPs spent time interpreting the former prime minister’s intentions and the messages he sent to all sides through his interview. There was common acknowledgment that Alexis Tsipras, for the first time, appeared to address the anti-establishment audience and the “gray zone” of opinion polls – people from all political backgrounds who today appear troubled by politicians, seeking new political shelter.
“No one will pass into the new era with an old passport. It will only perpetuate stagnation and lawlessness. I insist, I repeat, I say again: the political system, in all its expressions, has fallen in the people’s consciousness, at least the vast majority,” Alexis Tsipras stated, adding: “The parties, Justice, Parliament, institutions as well. It’s self-deception and convenience to expect something positive from a system that doesn’t want to and can’t. We need new tools of thought and action, otherwise we’ll all get bogged down in a dead-end situation. Citizens – this is today’s force of change. Only they, ‘from below,’ can overturn the ‘above’ data, put their stamp on developments.”
He even mentioned an example where a Sorbonne student told him she couldn’t distinguish “the left from the right MP.” “They do the same things. They speak in almost the same way, even if they say different words.” “Her observation troubled and saddened me, because it’s not just the student. Many of our fellow citizens share similar thoughts. So if we don’t change, if we don’t make a difference primarily morally, in values, culturally, how will we convince that we are something different? How will we change the world if we appear comfortable with today’s?”
Tsipras’s goal
With his statements, the former prime minister wanted to approach ordinary voters, implementing his new doctrine that he will not move through negotiations and transactions, but by listening to what society tells him. Naturally, there are Koumoundourou officials who consider these references excessive, since he too has governed and, if he forms a party, will again find himself in Parliament.
The same people appeared even more annoyed by the former prime minister’s reference to the Left, at a time when SYRIZA is trying to align with the New Left. “If we define as framework today’s political system, the fragmented democratic opposition, the personal parties and parties born through the miscarriage of splits – and the appropriation of parliamentary seats, which continues – then the content of the moves I intend to make is very specific. No transaction, no backstage dealings, no attempt that reproduces worn-out practices,” he stated.
The Tsipras reference that didn’t enthuse Koumoundourou
Meanwhile, Koumoundourou wasn’t enthusiastic about his reference to SYRIZA and the relationship he will now have with his former party. “My relationship with SYRIZA was a life relationship, but it has closed. And if someone understands my decision not to be an MP anymore and to attempt a ‘march toward the people’ as competitive, then they’re wrong. It’s a decision of transcendence, not competition.” The objections here mainly concern SYRIZA’s narrative that their party will align with Alexis Tsipras and that the new venture is not competitive with the Koumoundourou party. With the word “transcendence,” however, the former prime minister actually shows, in his way, that he has decided to leave SYRIZA behind and proceed on new paths.
