Tsipras pulls out his “honesty meter” in an attempt to erase the past, just as he did with SYRIZA and his (former) comrades.

In 2015, he came to power by exploiting the wave of indignation and anger caused by the economic crisis by promising everything to everyone—and above all, the tearing up of the memorandum with a single law and a single article, only to end up with bank closures, capital controls, and a “U-turn” that left citizens high and dry.

During the interim government period, they operated—according to the then-minister in charge Stavros Kontonis— a deputy ministry of Justice within the Maximos Mansion. An attempt was made to control the judiciary and, at the same time, to control the media through the well-known tender for television licenses and the Florence Institute—with its pastures and the project to create the SYRIZA Channel.

The piecemeal approach to public works to benefit specific contractors has led to unbelievable delays. The tarps covering the Thessaloniki metro remain a defining feature of the country’s governance, while theNovartis scandal and the targeting—and character assassination—of political opponents have been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The false promises, the commitments that were never kept, and what transpired during the 4.5 years of co-governance cannot be measured by the… “honesty meter” and do not align with the moral high ground of the Left that it is attempting to bring back to the forefront in order to rally its supporters from the parties into which SYRIZA split as a result of its participation.

Nor what happened with the penal code, a week before Parliament adjourned for the 2019 elections—with serious criminals exploiting the new provisions that were denounced even by SYRIZA’s youth wing— while there are many—and by no means a few—who benefited from the commutation of sentences for specific crimes to lighter ones.

The “honesty meter” does not even record the poorly staged performance on the night of the deadly fire in Mati nor his presence at the Fire Department’s operations center, where he asked where the firefighting aircraft would be flying the next day without mentioning the dozens of people who had already died.

Alexis Tsipras is asking for a second chance. Except that he was given one and he blew it. He was given that chance in 2019 when citizens voted for his party to serve as the official opposition. The fact that he didn’t like that role is another matter.