Former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took aim at rival leftist parties, particularly the Communist Party (KKE), during an online meeting with members of his new Greek Left Alliance (ELAS), criticizing what he called an unwillingness to seek governing power.
Mr. Tsipras said ELAS was founded not to add another party to a "problematic" political spectrum, but to reshape Greece's political balance and rebuild a strong progressive force capable of directly challenging Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's New Democracy government, "not to protest, but to seek to govern the country."
Without naming the Communist Party directly, Mr. Tsipras criticized segments of the far left for refusing to engage with governing responsibility "until the second coming of socialism," accusing them of taking "the easy path" of perpetual protest without accountability.
"How exactly do you improve conditions for workers, the poor, the socially excluded, if you never take responsibility?" he said, adding that responsibility inevitably brings mistakes and costs, but that abandoning the fight for social justice was not an option.
Turning to economic policy, Mr. Tsipras accused the government of distorting ELAS's proposals to suggest that any socially oriented policy is fiscally unfeasible, arguing instead that it is government tax breaks for the wealthy and unchecked corporate cartels that are truly unsustainable.
He outlined three pillars of ELAS's economic program: strengthening social protection and the welfare state; pursuing tax fairness by shifting the burden from vulnerable groups toward wealthier citizens; and maintaining fiscal stability.