Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took aim Wednesday at the Greek Left Alliance (ELAS), the political party unveiled Tuesday by former leftist prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
“What is there to say about the name? I guess he left EAM for Mr Polakis,” Mitsotakis said, referring to outspoken lawmaker and former SYRIZA minister Pavlos Polakis.
EAM was the communist-led resistance movement formed in Greece during World War II, while ELAS was its military wing, an organized guerrilla force that fought the Axis occupation.
The choice of the name ELAS, which is also the acronym for the Greek police, has drawn scrutiny from analysts and prompted mixed public reactions.
Polakis, who served as alternate health minister in Tsipras’ government, has since broken ties with the former prime minister and had been viewed by analysts as a possible contender for the SYRIZA leadership following Tsipras’ political comeback as an independent force. However, the party recently expelled him from its parliamentary group following escalating tensions over his criticism of current party leader Sokratis Famellos.
