It seems that May hasn’t got off to a very good start for Alexis Tsipras.
And that’s because, almost immediately after the manifesto marking his return to active politics, came a public confrontation that clouded message of a reboot.
The former prime minister chose to respond publicly to journalists Eleni Varvitsioti and Victoria Dendrinou, authors of the book “The Last Bluff“, stating that he would not respond to their call.
The reason? As he argued, his attendance would “legitimize” a narrative that, according to him, targets him, going so far as to call it “character assassination“. At the core of his objection is the report – as he claims – that he allegedly connected the Presponses Agreement with negotiating cuts in pensionswith the then Commission President Jean Claude Juncker.
However, the response of the two journalists was direct and unequivocal: in none of the 399 pages of the book is there any such reference, neither direct nor indirect. Somewhere here an obvious question of credibility arises.
Who is telling the truth? And who is bluffing?
For those who haven’t read the book, the dilemma is real. But for those who have read it – from what I read in the social media – there is no dilemma. Moreover, experience shows that two professional journalists are unlikely to refute their own work. Most likely scenario? An exaggerated – if not incorrect – interpretation on the part of Tsipras.
In any case, as a political startup, it’s not exactly successful rebranding. An aggressive stance against journalists for something that – at least according to them and the wider readership – is not required raises more questions than it solves. And that, politically, is costly.
