Antonis Liakos, one of the signatories of the founding declaration of ELAS, debunks key promises made by Alexis Tsipras.

Alexis Tsipras has once again begun making promises to everyone, as is his usual practice. But this time, he was called out by an official from ELAS.

Specifically, the well-known history professor, although a member of ELAS, in a post, sharply criticized Alexis Tsipras and his announcement regarding free public transportation in Athens and Thessaloniki. As those who actually use public transportation have written, they know that the problem isn’t the fare—which is low compared to the rest of Europe—but the condition of the system. 

And that’s why Alexis Tsipras says nothing about this, nor about the elephant in the room, as he puts it—which is traffic congestion. In fact, he emphasizes that the issue is finding funds to upgrade public transportation and address problems on the road network, something that certainly won’t help if revenue from tickets is also lost.

He also takes a jab at the feasibility of having only tourists pay while residents do not, noting that he will not even address proposals that are difficult to implement.

Criticism is also directed at the national exams

Antonis Liakos also criticizes Alexis Tsipras’s announcement to abolish the national college entrance exams. Of course, all of this makes one wonder why he didn’t do these things while he was in power.

As the professor and senior official of ELAS wrote, the issue of university admissions is too complex to be solved simply by abolishing the national college entrance exams, and he emphasized that he has not heard from Alexis Tsipras his proposal on how students would gain admission to universities. Essentially, he is implying here that the former prime minister is making hasty promises just to impress.

He concludes by saying that the Left needs seriousness and credibility—qualities he clearly does not see in the former prime minister’s proposals. Even though he signed the founding declaration of ELAS.

In any case, Alexis Tsipras has taken it to a whole new level, as even the leaders of his new party are growing frustrated with his promises.

Here is the relevant post: