Alexis Tsipras resigns as MP - New party on the way?

Tsipras’s rise to power has been nothing short of extraordinary. From student activism in the 1990s to leading Greece’s first radical left-wing government in 2015, he became the youngest prime minister in the country’s history. His tenure was marked by high-stakes drama: a referendum rejecting austerity, a near exit from the eurozone, and the abrupt reversal that kept Greece in the currency union but left deep political scars and societal divisions. He transformed SYRIZA from a fringe coalition into a governing party, yet the same transformation blurred its identity and ultimately eroded its support, leaving Tsipras both celebrated and resented in equal measure.

In his resignation statement, the 51-year old politician stressed that he was stepping away from parliament, not from politics. Rejecting the “safety of the back benches,” he promised to return to the “uncertainty of social struggle,” presenting himself as a leader liberated from party machinery and ready to reconnect with society. His call for collective action against corruption, inequality, and democratic decline reads less like a farewell and more like a manifesto. To many, it is the clearest sign yet that Tsipras is preparing to build a new political home, one that seeks to capture the hopes of disillusioned left-leaning Greeks and rekindle the fire that first propelled him to power.

You can read his full announcement here:

“After 16 years in Parliament, as an MP, party leader, leader of the opposition, and Prime Minister, I followed my conscience and made a decision: I am resigning from my parliamentary seat.

I submitted my resignation to the Speaker of Parliament, just before the opening of the new parliamentary session. It was not an easy decision, nor one taken lightly.

I resign because I cannot and I do not want to hold the office of MP, with all the privileges it entails, when I feel that my participation, especially considering my role as a former PM, offers nothing substantial to those who trusted me.

I resign because I cannot and I do not want to participate in a Parliament which, stripped of its democratic mantle -by the actions of the majority- is unable to fulfil its constitutional role as well as the role that the citizens of this country demand of it.

I resign as SYRIZA MP, but I do not resign from political action.
I leave behind the safety of the back benches. And I aspire to return to the hopeful uncertainty of social struggle.

I do not aspire to lead from above, but to listen more closely to our society and its needs. Freed from the office, its obligations and the mechanisms that surround it, and no longer serve the .

At a time when our homeland finds itself in a dangerous stalemate -economic, political, geostrategic, but above all moral- hope is needed.
Through actions, and not just words. Through actions that prove we are not all the same.

Its only through actions, that we can overcome today’s stalemate.

I do not believe in Messiahs, nor in parties constructed in sterile laboratories. I do believe in the power of a popular movement that fights collectively for social justice. I do believe in the will and actions of the many. And it is with them, their needs and their hopes, that I am determined to converse.

I want to address my comrades, all the people with whom we have walked this path together and shared struggles, worries, hopes, and dreams. We will not be opponents and perhaps soon we will travel together again to more beautiful seas.

However, above all, I want to address the majority of Greek society that is suffocating: the plundering of our homeland by a regime of entrenched corruption that breeds inequality and injustice cannot continue.

If those who hold the sacred responsibility of democratic opposition cannot put aside their self-interest to bring about change, then we must all become the change we long for. So that we may take the future into our own hands. This is what worth every moment of effort and struggle.”