Former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has sharply criticized former prime minister Alexis Tsipras and his newly launched Greek Left Alliance (ELAS), accusing him of offering no substantive policy proposals and attempting to revive his former political support base through vague rhetoric.
Speaking on OPEN TV on Tuesday in his first public comments on the launch of ELAS, Varoufakis said Tsipras was seeking to recreate the support once enjoyed by SYRIZA without making concrete commitments.
“He talks about general concepts that everyone agrees with, like world peace and better education,” Varoufakis said. “He is trying to rebuild SYRIZA’s 17% without saying anything on the merits.”
Tsipras’ flamboyant finance minister during the 2015 standoff with Greece’s bailout creditors, Varoufakis resigned after Tsipras backed a new bailout deal – ignoring a referendum in which most Greeks voted to reject it.
The leader of the MERA25 party, which lost its parliamentary representation in 2023, also dismissed suggestions that Tsipras could pose a serious electoral challenge to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
