Today Alexis Tsipras denounces funds and auctions, but his political path is reminiscent of who opened the door to servicers and closed it on the middle class.
Lately, a carefully directed political rebranding, with socially sensitive videos, sharp lines against the government and a new narrative about a “progressive reboot”, has been taking place by Alexis Tsipras. This time he chose the field of “red loans” and the first home, seeking contact with the middle class that he himself traumatized politically and financially during his administration. With dramatic tones, accusations of “state-guaranteed robbery” and attacks on the “Hercules” project, the former prime minister appears as a defender of the weak against the funds. Except there is a small political detail: the system he is now denouncing bears largely his signature. And this is not erased either by high-quality videos or easy slogans about “clashing with interests”.
The former prime minister attempted to present a picture of social outrage, talking about thousands of borrowers being squeezed by funds,increasing foreclosures and banking interests operating at the expense of society. He accused the government of offering state guarantees with the Hercules plan so that funds buy loans at low prices and then demand 100% from citizens. He even demanded that borrowers be allowed to buy back their loans at the same prices that funds acquire them, presenting the proposal as an act of social justice. The problem is that this all sounds extremely convenient coming from a politician who ruled for four years and implemented none of what he now presents as supposedly obvious solutions.
And that’s where this is where the real political issue begins. Because Mr Tsipras’ new campaign is not just about the economy or mortgages. It is mainly about the attempt at political oblivion. An attempt to erase from the collective memory what exactly happened during the Syriza period and who legally legitimized the funds, servicers and electronic auctions that he is now denouncing with the tone of a TV commentator.
From “no house in the hands of a banker” to electronic auctions
The political irony in the case of Tsipras now exceeds the limits of hypocrisy and borders on political self-sarcasm. The man who in 2015 went to the bars with the slogan “no house in the hands of a banker”, ended up a few years later institutionalizing electronic auctions and creating the institutional framework for the operation of funds and servicers.
The government has harshly reminded that Law 4354/2015 under the Syriza government was the basis for the operation of debt management companies. At the same time, under Tsipras, electronic auctions were not only introduced but turned into a key tool to put pressure on debtors. And of course, back then there were no dramatic Facebook videos or complaints of “small property robbery”. There was only the classic excuse of “necessary compromise”, which was eventually used to justify every political cubist of the Syriza period.
The rebranding of the former prime minister
Lately Alexis Tsipras seems to be systematically building a new political profile. More mature, more institutional, more “centre-left”, with a strong social focus and constant interventions on banks, PPC, inequalities and the rule of law. The only problem for the former prime minister is that political memory in Greece may often be short, but not non-existent.
For every time he appears as an opponent of the funds, he will be confronted with the question: why did he not then give the possibility to buy back loans from the borrowers themselves? Why didn’t he then clash with the banks? Why did he not effectively protect the middle class that he now invokes?
Even the appeal to social justice sounds politically poor when it comes from a politician who handed over a country with “red” loans of up to 100 billion euros and a banking system in a marginal state. The current government may be criticised for aspects of its policies, but it has succeeded in drastically reducing non-performing loans and restoring stability to the banking system. And this is an objective political fact that makes the former prime minister’s new narrative very difficult.
The “social sensitivity” as a tool for political comeback
It is no coincidence that Tsipras is now choosing themes that directly touch the memory of society. Accuracy, banks, electricity bills, housing crisis, first home. This is a clear attempt to reconnect with social strata that abandoned SYRIZA after 2019 and especially after the double electoral crash of 2023.
The problem is, however, that the image of the “antisystemic defender of the weak” is difficult to recover when it has been preceded by four years of memorandum management with heavy taxation, capital controls and successive compromises. Alexis Tsipras is trying to appear as something between a political reformer and a social activist, but his own governance acts as the biggest opponent of this effort.
Each new intervention is increasingly reminiscent of a political campaign to herald a return. Except that society is not just listening to what he says today. It’s also comparing it to what he did yesterday.
Clashing with reality
The Ministry of National Economy’s announcement was tough but politically targeted. It described the former prime minister as a “fireman on the fire he lit”, seeking to completely invalidate Tsipras’ new social narrative. And to a large extent he succeeded, because he brought an uncomfortable truth about SYRIZA back to the forefront: that many of the current pathologies he denounces had his own political stamp.
The political paradox is that Alexis Tsipras continues to talk like an opposition leader who never ruled. As if he suddenly appeared out of nowhere to discover the injustices of the banking system. But reality is inexorable. The laws are there, the decisions are there, the signatures are there.
And the more the former prime minister attempts to rewrite the history of the 2015-2019 period, the more the images and policy choices he would prefer to forget will return.
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