Tsipras heralds strategic ‘transformation’ of SYRIZA
Less than a month after a resounding election win, notwithstanding his bailout U-turn and having rid SYRIZA of its hardline leftist faction, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras over the weekend heralded a bid to redefine his party’s political identity, bringing it closer to its newly found catchment area.
Addressing a central committee meeting, which set out the party’s key priorities ahead of the main congress likely to take place in late February, Tsipras said the “transformation” of SYRIZA will allow it to operate along the lines of what he described as a nascent bipolar system that will see “a popular party pitted against a conservative one,” a reference to the New Democracy opposition.
ND is also locked in existential mode ahead of a party leadership vote set for late November, the outcome of which could further shake Greece’s political landscape.
Tsipras said the September 20 elections had “confirmed the clear segregation of the electorate,” adding that SYRIZA had drawn a class-specific vote from working-class families.
The 41-year-old politician announced steps to open up the party and party organizations to new members, as well as to rebuild its youth league, which was devastated by the departure of Left Platform, the hard-left anti-euro subgroup led by Panayiotis Lafazanis.
