Tsipras resigns from SYRIZA leadership after crushing election defeat

Alexis Tsipras announced on Thursday he had submitted his resignation from the party’s leadership after SYRIZA suffered a crushing defeat in two elections held in May and June.

“I cannot propose this conviction of mine about the need for deep renewal and re-establishment [of the party] with my words alone if I do not simultaneously serve it with my actions…I understand the need for a new wave in SYRIZA. And I decided to step aside. I have confidence in the human capital of our party, in the inexhaustible forces of society and the Left. I therefore decided to propose the election of a new leadership by the members of the Party, as stipulated in its statute [and] the immediate recourse to the relevant procedures, in which of course I will not be a candidate,” he said in a televised statement made at Zappeio, in central Athens.

Earlier, Tsipras, at the helm of SYRIZA for the past 15 years, chaired the party’s executive committee which met to discuss SYRIZA’s future.

The conservatives won 40.56 percent and 158 seats in Parliament on June 25 ahead of SYRIZA, which got 17.84 percent and 47 seats, an even smaller tally compared to the May 21 election. New Democracy won the May polls with 20 points ahead of SYRIZA, and Sunday’s result was seen as a massive blow, raising questions about Tsipras’ leadership.

The abstention rate set a new record on Sunday, reaching 47.17%, surpassing the previous record set in the September 2015 election, when it reached 43.84%.

Tsipras, aged 48, served as prime minister from 2015 to 2019 – some of the most turbulent years of Greece’s financial crisis.