Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s former Prime Minister and leader of the left-wing Syriza party, has announced his resignation following a significant defeat in the recent Greek elections. “The time has come to start a new cycle,” said Mr Tsipras, while calling for his centre-left party to be reformed.
In the elections, the conservative New Democracy (ND) party emerged victorious with nearly 41% of the vote, leaving Syriza far behind at 18%. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of ND, sees this as a “strong mandate” to implement his agenda of change. Mitsotakis had previously defeated Syriza in May but called for new elections in an attempt to secure a majority in the 300-member parliament.
According to Greek election rules, the largest party in a second election is awarded a bonus of 20 to 50 seats. In this case, ND won all 50 bonus seats, resulting in a total of 158 lawmakers.
Tsipras made his resignation announcement in a televised statement, stating that the negative election result should mark the beginning of a new phase for Syriza. He called for internal elections within the party to select a new leader, confirming that he would not be a candidate.
Tsipras, who is now 48 years old, served as Greece’s prime minister from 2015 to 2019 and was the country’s youngest leader in 150 years. He rose to power by promising to abolish austerity measures imposed by the EU to tackle Greece’s severe government debt crisis. However, he later went back on those promises, leading many Greeks to view him as a politician who almost caused the country’s exit from the eurozone.
