In a heated confrontation that brought echoes of Greece’s stormy political past back to center stage, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reignited their bitter rivalry on Wednesday. Taking place on the anniversary of the divisive 2015 referendum, the clash stirred fresh debate over the enduring legacy of that period—and fueled renewed speculation about Tsipras’s possible return to the political forefront.
Mitsotakis used the opportunity to launch a scathing attack on his predecessor, accusing Tsipras of attempting to sanitize his legacy. The prime minister suggested that certain media outlets and political interests were now working to rehabilitate Tsipras and undermine the current government in the process. “I cannot remain silent while Mr. Tsipras desperately tries to cleanse himself of the destructive role he played for four years,” Mitsotakis told lawmakers. “And let’s not ignore the familiar power centers rushing to become eager laundromats for one of the darkest periods in our modern history.”
The prime minister recalled the chaos and economic upheaval of the 2015 referendum, blaming SYRIZA’s leadership for misleading the Greek public and inflicting lasting damage. “The so-called ‘first time Left’ didn’t fool Europe—it fooled the Greek people,” he declared. “With Tsipras as the lead actor, he told outrageous lies in opposition, dragged the country backward in power, and has since been defeated in five national elections.”
Mitsotakis argued that rebranding efforts from Tsipras and his allies—new party logos, new political messaging—would not change the public’s perception. “No matter how many profiles they craft or names they change, every time they try to reappear as something different, they will face three unrelenting opponents: their reflection in the mirror, the wounds they left on this country, and the memory of every Greek citizen.”
He also claimed that efforts to revive Tsipras’s political image were part of a broader agenda by vested interests and sympathetic media to install a leader more susceptible to influence. “This clearly bothers some,” Mitsotakis said. “There are interests and media outlets that would prefer a prime minister they can control. I will not give them that satisfaction. That’s why they are now scrambling, with great enthusiasm, to pull the old leader out of mothballs and hand him a new mission. It’s not surprising. They’ve tested this government in many ways and failed. They’ll fail again.”
Alexis Tsipras responded forcefully through social media, rejecting Mitsotakis’s accusations and turning them back on the prime minister. “The only one looking to be ‘washed clean’ is the one who’s stained,” Tsipras wrote. “I know I’m not. Can Mitsotakis say the same?”
He mocked the prime minister’s claims of being attacked by powerful interests. “Today, Parliament heard the shortest joke ever: that Kyriakos Mitsotakis is under siege from vested interests. It would be funny—if it weren’t tragic.”
Tsipras pointed to the state of Greece when he left office, emphasizing that he handed over a country no longer under bailout supervision, with €37 billion in reserves, a restructured debt load, and restored international credibility. In his view, Mitsotakis squandered that position. “Despite managing a flood of European funding, he has turned
Greece back into Europe’s black sheep,” Tsipras said, adding that the country now faces ridicule even from “warlords in Libya,” while its interactions with European institutions are largely limited to investigations by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The former prime minister accused Mitsotakis of hiding the country’s current problems behind a distorted narrative of the past and of using pre-election handouts worth hundreds of millions of euros to secure victory. “After hubris,” he warned, “comes nemesis.”
The sharp back-and-forth between Greece’s two most prominent political figures signals not only lingering wounds from one of the country’s most divisive eras but also a deepening of the ideological rift that continues to define Greek politics.
