Greece’s conservative government downplayed on Monday the political impact of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ resignation from parliament, saying his departure would make little difference to the legislature.
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said Tsipras’ exit was “parliamentarily irrelevant,” noting the 51-year-old had not spoken in the chamber for more than two years.
Asked about speculation Tsipras could form a new center-left movement, Marinakis said: “What is happening in another political space, that of the Left or the centre-left – however you want to define the space Mr Tsipras belongs to – does not concern our political space, nor is it our job to comment on or predict what will happen.”
He also mocked Tsipras’ use of nautical metaphors in his resignation statement – in which he told former SYRIZA colleagues they might soon “travel together again to more beautiful seas” – recalling a 2015 speech during Greece’s debt crisis. “The last time Mr Tsipras spoke about seas, we were all looking for a life jacket,” Marinakis said, referring to the period of capital controls and closed banks under Tsipras’ premiership. “We ended up burdened with more than €100 billion in unnecessary debt.”
Tsipras, who led SYRIZA to power during Greece’s debt crisis and governed from 2015 to 2019, announced on Monday he was stepping down as an MP after 16 years but pledged to continue political activism outside parliament. His resignation has intensified speculation he may try to regroup forces on the center-left.
