Former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has launched his new party under the name Greek Left Coalition — ELAS — with opinion polls already placing the fledgling movement in a dead heat with the socialist PASOK party for second place in Greek politics.
The name ELAS deliberately evokes Greece's primary left-wing resistance movement of World War II, a resonant historical reference that frames the party's positioning as a challenge to the political establishment rather than a continuation of the post-crisis left. \
"Today, a new political force is born, aiming not just for a change of government, but a wholesale change of policy," Mr. Tsipras told the crowd.
Mr. Tsipras focused his remarks on household economics, calling high indirect taxation a "robbery" of working-class families and labeling the ruling conservative government a self-serving "caste."
He invited supporters to sign the party's founding charter as the basis for building what he described as a broad social majority.
ELAS enters a crowded opposition space. Both it and PASOK are competing to position themselves as the primary alternative to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's New Democracy ahead of the 2027 elections.
A third new entrant, Maria Karystianou's "Hope for Democracy" movement — launched by the Tempe train crash activist last week — is also competing for the same disillusioned voter pool.
Mr. Tsipras resigned as Syriza leader following severe electoral defeats.
His decision to build a new vehicle rather than return to his former party reflects the depth of the rupture with a movement he once led to power.