Former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday said he would formalise on May 26 a long-awaited comeback ahead of national elections next year.
Tsipras on Facebook posted a video with two boys wearing jerseys with the numbers 26 and 5, ending months of speculation about his return to politics.
“Now is the time,” he wrote.
Prime minister at the end of the country’s decade-long economic crisis, Tsipras, 51, stepped down as leader of his Syriza party after losing the 2023 election to conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Rising prices and a combination of scandals have eroded support for Mitsotakis’ government.
Chief among them are alleged fraud over European Union farm subsidies, and a wiretapping scandal in which cabinet members, journalists and the head of the opposition were targeted.
There is also widespread anger about the slow investigation of Greece’s worst train disaster that claimed 57 lives in 2023, which took three years to get to a trial.
Elections are scheduled for 2027, but there is speculation they could be held as early as September.
In addition to Tsipras’ party, former conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras, a longterm critic of Mitsotakis who was kicked out of New Democracy in 2024, is also rumoured to be planning a challenge.
And an icon of the 2023 train tragedy, the mother of one of the victims Maria Karystianou, will also announce a new party on May 21.
