In his discussion with the director of Το Vima, Pericles Dimitropoulos, former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke both about domestic politics and international issues, and threw some darts at his political opponents. 

He stated he wants to continue to comment on the political moment, saying, “when you leave the active action, that does not mean that you have to sit mute and silent. That is not how I understand the position of the former prime minister.” He joked, “I did not decide to retire to a monastery.”

Tsipras critiqued both Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the President of the PASOK Nikos Androulakis in his comments, while also analyzing the decisions he made as prime minister.

Alexis Tsipras started by speaking about wounds left οn Greece by World War II, specifically about the stunted democracy of the post-Civil War state that led to the American-driven dictatorship, which resulted in “carrying the wound of dependency”, the tragedy of Cyprus that “weighs on Hellenism”, Greek-Turkish relations, as “Turkey is unfolding its revisionist agenda” and the issue that after the end of the Cold War “emerged on the northern border with a newly established state claiming a name and cultural heritage with aggressive intentions”.

The former prime minister argued the three greatest successes of Greek foreign policy during the Metapolitefsi period were: Greece’s accession to the EEC, the accession of Cyprus to the EU, and the Prespa Agreement with North Macedonia, which he helped bring about.

“I received harsh and unfair criticism from the current prime minister,” Tsipras claimed regarding the Prespa Agreement, recalling that it had been called a “national exception” and that “I traded pensions for the name.”

Greece as a Bridge

Tsipras framed the country as an important crossroads.  “Greece is in the middle of a triangle of destabilization,” he said. But, “we are not an outpost, but rather a bridge of three continents.”

Fundamental for the former prime minister is “to define what our strategy is” in regards to foreign relations. The goal for him is “to ensuring peace and stability, to increase the geopolitical prestige, sovereignty and sovereign rights.”

“It is not an easy equation,” he admitted, but “that should be the goal.”

For him, foreign policy “must have a beginning, a middle and an end”.

Asked about the issue of the election of the President of the Republic, Tsipras stated that “the discussion about names or characteristics at a time when the country has a President is a trivialization of the institution and leaves it in the hands of the Prime Minister”.

He even urged Mitsotakis “to explain to us why he is thinking about the change, where he made a mistake”.

In his opinion, “institutional trivialization has come not from the revision of Article 32. ND imposed the view that the president can be elected even with 120 votes. It trivializes the institution because the President is the guarantor of the smooth functioning of the constitution and the political system.”

Comments on the Opposition

“I did not have expectations of a Patriotic Left”, Tsipras said in response to a question about the direction of some left-wing parties such as Stefanos Kasselakis’ new Democracy Movement  and the general needs of the centre-left to reposition itself in the political scene.

“The issue is not to reassemble pieces, but to provide a solution to the problem. There is an unprecedented imbalance. The problem is that there is no opposition,” said Tsipras. “Even for the ruling party it is a problem. We will start from the need for understanding among the fragmented forces.” 

As he argued, “it is a bit of an oxymoron what is happening” as “we have not had oppositions falling but governments falling. We have an opposition that did nothing to rise, it was stagnant. So I think everyone should take responsibility for it.”

“I am not happy with the image of the Prime Minister meeting with the new leader of the opposition and the argument that with the consensus the country is moving forward. The country is also moving forward through conflicts. The opposition matters. Opposition that is serious, structured, strong,  and  thorough,” he stated about the recent meeting between Mitsotakis and Androulakis.