Alexis Tsipras

Behind-the-scenes ferment, meaningful appearances, and surprise set the scene for the Syriza Progressive Alliance’s stance towards the selection of the right person for the Presidency of the Republic, which is proving to be a political milestone if not a catalyst for broader developments.

The debate on the budget in the House of Representatives turned out to be a foretaste of the new political period ushered in by the advent of 2025, with the Syriza Progressive Alliance emerging unscathed from the vote, but from the benches of what is now the third parliamentary power in the plenary chamber.

A strong vote of parliamentary confidence in an environment of extreme political volatility was given to the government as the state budget for 2025 received 159 positive votes, the most in five years.

Almost as time was running out, yesterday afternoon, the Syriza Progressive Alliance‘s stance on defence spending crystallized, with the budget debate culminating this evening.

Alexis Tsipras, Greece's former left-wing prime minister, has sought to defend his political legacy, including the controversial decision to hold a referendum on the bailout terms proposed by international creditors during the critical summer of 2015.

Most prime ministers in the post-dictatorship period have wanted to come to some form of agreement with Turkey. Konstantinos Karamanlis certainly did, Andreas Papandreou made a solid effort at Davos, Konstantinos Mitsotakis thought of it constantly and Kostas Simitis pursued it systematically.

A major disruption within the SYRIZA Progressive Alliance was triggered by the news of Eyaggelos Apostolakis’ decision to leave the party. The admiral’s move took both the party’s new chairman, Socrates Famellos, and the natural leader of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, by surprise, as he announced his intentions late yesterday afternoon.

The Timeline

Sokratis Famellos, the recently elected new leader of the leftist SYRIZA party, which recently lost its status as the main opposition following a wave of defections, presented a party restart plan to former leader Alexis Tsipras, at the latter's office in central Athens on Thursday. 

Sokratis Famellos, the new president of SYRIZA, held a meeting with former Prime Minister and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras.

The meeting between the two men took place on Thursday afternoon at Tsipras’ office in central Athens.

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The fact that SYRIZA managed to bring an end to its adventures with Stefanos Kasselakis - albeit it in a not very democratic way, admittedly - and to democratically elect a decent, if not brilliant, new leader in Sokratis Famellos is good news for Greece's earthquake-prone political system.