Greece’s Alexis Tsipras has stepped down from the helm of the leftist Syriza party following a heavy election defeat.
“The time has come to start a new cycle,” Tsipras said in a televised address, adding that reform of the party was needed.
He said he was stepping down to pave the way for elections for a new party leader, saying he would not be a candidate.
Led by Tsipras, Syriza stormed to power in 2015 at the height of Greece’s deep economic crisis, riding a wave of anti-austerity and anti-bailout anger among Greeks.
It lost to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s New Democracy in 2019.
In Sunday’s vote, Syriza won just 17.8 per cent of the votes against 40.5 per cent for New Democracy.
“I cannot propose this conviction of mine about the need for deep renewal and re-establishment [of the party] with my words alone if I do not simultaneously serve it with my actions…I understand the need for a new wave in SYRIZA.
“And I decided to step aside. I have confidence in the human capital of our party, in the inexhaustible forces of society and the Left.
“I therefore decided to propose the election of a new leadership by the members of the Party, as stipulated in its statute [and] the immediate recourse to the relevant procedures, in which of course I will not be a candidate,” he said in a televised statement made at Zappeio and reported in Kathimerini
“The negative result can – and must – become the beginning of this cycle,”
“I am proud of everything that happened,” he said.
“This difficult journey had compromises, and difficult decisions, and injuries and attrition, but it was a journey that left a mark on history.”
Tsipras, aged 48, served as prime minister from 2015 to 2019 – some of the most turbulent years of Greece’s financial crisis.
Source: AAP
