Tsipras confident SYRIZA will win next parliamentary election

Alexis Tsipras has expressed confidence that Greece’s main opposition will win next year’s general election, predicting that his leftist SYRIZA party will surge to first place on the back of disaffected voters.

“Opinion polls speak of a sizeable chunk of undecided voters and increasing public discontent with the government over the economy,” Tsipras said in an interview with Skai TV anchorwoman Sia Kosioni late Tuesday.

“This pool of undecided voters is not going to swing toward the ruling party,” he said.

“I believe SYRIZA can win the next election,” he said, adding that victory hinged on a low abstention rate at the polls.

Elections, which are scheduled for June 2023, will be fought under proportional representation, which means that no party will win an overall majority. A second ballot will follow, under a new law passed by ruling New Democracy, which will give the top voting-getting party a large number of bonus members of Parliament.

Asked whether he would seek to form a coalition government if his SYRIZA party came second in the polls, Tsipras said that he wanted to see “a government of winners.”

“Even if the numbers did add up [allowing SYRIZA to form a coalition government], there would still be an ethical question at hand; and this is important to me,” he said.

Public surveys show the conservatives of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis polling more than eight points ahead of SYRIZA.