Former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras presented the core elements of a five-year national recovery plan focused on supporting younger generations at the Economist’s Fifth Thessaloniki Metropolitan Summit on Friday.
Tsipras, who led the leftist SYRIZA government from 2015 to 2019, proposed raising funds from very high incomes through what he called a “Patriotic Contribution” and through redistribution, with the aim of channeling resources into education, research, innovation, and youth housing.
“We need a new national compass, and it is necessary for all productive social classes to participate in this effort. What this homeland needs at this moment, in short, is a new patriotism,” he said.
He also proposed the creation of a National Convergence Fund to finance a new productive model, designed to direct investments into strategic sectors, encourage public-private synergies, and attract private capital.
“The country urgently needs a large developmental shock, equivalent to those of the periods of [Harilaos] Trikoupis and [Eleftherios] Venizelos,” Tsipras added, while accusing the conservative New Democracy government of relying on “old, bankrupt recipes” and failing to deliver on economic and social needs.
Government sources responded by accusing the former prime minister of “attempting to distort the reality of what citizens went through during the ‘dark period’ of 2015-2019, rather than apply basic self-criticism.”
Tsipras is reportedly preparing a political comeback. Although he has not confirmed plans to launch a new party since stepping down as SYRIZA leader in 2023, recent polls suggest he is the only political figure currently seen as capable of forming a credible opposition bloc to the ruling conservatives. [AMNA, Kathimerini]