Officials from ELAS who appear in the media are trying to project the image of a new venture. So far, so good.
Except that they forget—or don’t want to be reminded—that their president is Alexis Tsipras, former prime minister, president of SYRIZA until the 2023 elections and the two electoral defeats, and subsequently a SYRIZA member of parliament until October 2025.
And this is happening despite the fact that he himself cites his tenure to demonstrate that he has experience as prime minister, even stating that back then he knew what he wanted, but didn’t know how to do it, whereas now he knows both what he wants and how to do it—thereby, of course, undermining everything he said before the elections of 2015 regarding their plan and ability to govern the country.
But let’s get back to what’s happening today with the Hellenic Police (ELAS) officials who represent the new party with the… old, as it seems, tax ID number in terms of mindset.
We heard a party spokesperson state on a TV panel that “if you ask me about 2015–2019, I’ll ask about 2009 and the empty coffers left by New Democracy,” attempting to pass the buck.
The trigger was the question of how the Hellenic Police (ELAS) could raise the issue of whether former commissioner and current MP Dimitris Avramopoulos in New Democracy and whether he will be on the party’s ticket for the upcoming elections, once again raising the issue of MPs facing criminal charges and all these baseless attacks targeting political opponents—and, above all, without any convictions against them.
What sparked the reaction was the observation that Alexis Tsipras, as president of SYRIZA, included on the party’s candidate lists prior to the 2023 elections Nikos Pappas on the party’s candidate lists ahead of the 2023 elections, even though he had already been unanimously (13-0) and irrevocably convicted by the Special Court. That’s where the story from 2009 began, but it was said that ELAS is a different party and that the party’s president has acknowledged past mistakes.
But what mistakes? Because it would be difficult to find anyone to argue that mistakes have been acknowledged beyond those concerning the selection of associates, on whom he also shifted the blame for the past, but also what he himself acknowledged regarding the banks, saying it was a mistake not to have shut them down as soon as he took over the country’s governance.
The bottom line is that through this discussion regarding the allegedly indicted members of parliament and the word games being played—even within the Hellenic Police—a clear attempt to erase the past has emerged. A sort of… purification through the creation of a new party.
One could easily argue that before Ithaca, some wish that the country had first been ruled by the lotophagi for the citizens of this country. But whether you like it or not, there are facts on the ground. Perhaps not for some newcomers, but certainly for those who governed, made decisions, and served in the opposition for many years.
To wrap it up. ELAS is a new party, having just been founded. Its founder, however, is a veteran, having served as president of another party for 15 years and as prime minister for 4.5 years.
* This article was published in the print edition of “Manifesto”
