Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Greek Left Alliance party (ELAS) – formed in 2026 – and a former prime minister, addressed his supporters ahead of the Thessaloniki International Fair with sharp criticism of the government’s handling of the “Predator” phone-tapping scandal and what he called a wasted opportunity to use European Union recovery funds, framing Greece’s next election as a choice between entrenched corruption and a change of government.
Tsipras arrived to applause, handshakes and cheers at a packed hall at the Porto Palace hotel.
Referring to the wiretapping scandal that has dogged the government since 2022, Tsipras said the decision, early in the government’s first term, to place the National Intelligence Service (EYP) under the direct authority of the prime minister’s office was “the biggest scandal of the post-1974 era” — one for which, he said, “any other prime minister, anywhere else, would have resigned,” or would have been removed by his own party. He referenced public comments by Grigoris Dimitriadis, the prime minister’s nephew and director of his office, saying Dimitriadis had acknowledged taking responsibility to shield “the real boss” — remarks Tsipras characterized as language “straight out of the mafia.”
Tsipras also argued that the government had squandered the opportunity presented by unprecedented EU recovery funding. He said the government had a parliamentary majority, time in office and “unprecedented European resources” at its disposal, yet the past seven years amounted to “a great lost opportunity.” He said most Greeks, according to polling, believe they are worse off than in 2019, even though the country has exited its international bailout programs.
He went on to argue that corruption had become systemic, citing polling that found 97% of Greeks believe corruption is widespread in the country. “The exception became the rule,” he said, pointing to public procurement data showing that 58% of public contracts had drawn only a single bid — evidence, he said, of an absence of competition or pressure on pricing. He said regulatory oversight had been weakened, independent authorities treated as obstacles, and decision-making concentrated in the prime minister’s office.
Tsipras also outlined a series of economic measures aimed at reducing living costs. On the cost of food and household goods, he proposed cutting VAT to 6% on basic food and hygiene products, a move he said would save households more than €600 a year. Anticipating skepticism that a tax cut would not necessarily be reflected in shelf prices, he said the reduction would be accompanied by three mandatory measures: a digital price-monitoring system tracking individual product codes rather than average prices, monitoring across the entire supply chain “from field to shelf,” and a cap on profit margins at every link in that chain.
On energy policy, Tsipras said his party would restore the Public Power Corporation (DEI) to a strategic public role with three core functions: guarantor of a baseline electricity tariff, strategic buyer and supplier of domestic clean energy, and investment pillar for grid infrastructure and storage. He said public participation in DEI should not be measured only by shareholder dividends but by its effect on household and business bills, and pledged that no household proven unable to pay would have its electricity cut off.
He said his party’s first priority would be tackling the cost of living, which he said “does not begin on the shelf but on the electricity bill.” He pledged a “steady and noticeable” reduction in tariffs for households and businesses — not through subsidies that offset part of an already high bill, he said, but by changing how energy is produced, stored and priced. He said his party would introduce a minimum guaranteed quantity of energy at a fixed, affordable price for every household, and would cut electricity bills by an average of 30%. He said the fixed price would be underpinned by long-term contracts for low-cost domestic energy production, shielding consumers from extreme market fluctuations.
On foreign policy, Tsipras said Turkish “provocations” were escalating in a worrying manner and said Greece must safeguard its security, defend its sovereign rights and uphold peace and stability in the region, adding that geopolitical uncertainty, climate change and the risk of international financial instability were challenges the country could not ignore.
