Former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras declared that Greece urgently needs political change as he announced plans to unite the nation's centre-left behind a progressive government program during an urban policy conference in Athens.
Tsipras, who leads the Hellenic Left Coalition (ELAS), told attendees he was ready to submit a comprehensive national plan and seek the formation of a progressive administration if his party wins the next general election.
Speaking at the Dialogues for Athens conference, organised by the newspaper TO VIMA, Tsipras emphasized that his goal was not to divide voters but to unite the broader progressive faction and centre-left movement. The event was held under the auspices of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Municipality of Athens, with support from the Region of Attica and in collaboration with the Delphi Economic Forum, with Mega TV journalist Niki Lymperaki moderating.
Tsipras served as prime minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019, leading the country through critical years of its financial restructuring before returning to opposition politics.
US relations and the Pnyx venue
Addressing foreign policy, the ELAS leader raised strong concerns regarding the visit of the US Secretary of State to Athens. He questioned what Greece actually gains from such diplomatic visits, suggesting that the primary beneficiary is the United States through the sale of new military equipment and armaments to the Greek armed forces.
Tsipras said he would have expected an explicit statement supporting international law from Washington, specifically citing the subsea electricity cable project connecting Greece and Cyprus. Instead, he argued that the US administration appears to be taking a wash-my-hands approach to the regional energy infrastructure dispute.
He also criticized the decision to allow the US Secretary of State to deliver a speech today at the Pnyx, an ancient hill overlooking the Acropolis that served as the primary assembly site of classical Athenian democracy. Tsipras remarked that the Pnyx holds historic democratic symbolism, whereas the MAGA movement represented by the current US president promotes political positions that sit on the absolute margins of democratic ideals.
Urban green space and city infrastructure
Turning to local governance in the capital, Tsipras identified the shortage of public green spaces as the most severe pathology facing modern Athens. He noted that neither current Athens Mayor Haris Doukas nor his predecessor Kostas Bakoyannis can be blamed for the city's concrete density.
Instead, he attributed the environmental deficit to the post-war property swap system known as antiparochi, under which landowners exchanged private plots for builder-constructed apartment units. Athens currently provides just 6.6 square metres of unbuilt green space per resident compared to 36 square metres in Paris, placing the Greek capital last among European capitals.
Tsipras urged authorities to protect all remaining unbuilt areas and expand public green space, lamenting that residents in Greece currently spend more leisure time in commercial shopping malls than in historic public parks like Pedion tou Areos.
Housing solutions and local taxation
On the growing housing crisis, Tsipras pointed out that the average citizen now allocates one third of their income toward housing costs. He criticized the current prime minister for failing to address the burden despite having access to 36 billion euros from the European Union Recovery Fund, noting that the funding yielded zero new housing units.
Tsipras said that after seven years in office, a prime minister should present a concrete accounting of achievements rather than proposal ideas, arguing the government has taken no action to regulate short-term Airbnb rentals or mobilize vacant housing stock. To resolve the crisis, he proposed utilizing inactive land, reforming the golden visa investment scheme, regulating short-term rentals, and introducing social antiparochi to allow private developers to construct affordable housing on state-owned land for a reasonable profit.
He further advocated establishing a unified metropolitan administration for greater Athens and decentralizing taxation by transferring real estate taxes, including the ENFIA property tax, directly to municipal governments. He also backed tailored building density bonuses for developments that incorporate wider open space, while arguing that managing tourist volume depends on upgrading city infrastructure rather than imposing arbitrary visitor caps.
Major infrastructure and data centers
Addressing broader urban development, Tsipras insisted that high quality of life cannot be achieved without mega infrastructure projects, provided they are executed on schedule and accompanied by clear utilization plans. He highlighted his government's intervention in the long-delayed Thessaloniki Metro, noting the project had been stuck at 30 percent completion for 14 years before progressing to 80 percent completion within three years of his administration taking office.
He added that previous official inaugurations had merely served as an excuse for why the citizens of Thessaloniki went without a functional underground transit system for four additional years.
Closing his remarks, Tsipras gave conditional approval to constructing data centers across the country, stressing that development permits must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis under strict environmental and economic restrictions. He warned that if investment agreements carry colonial terms, he would strongly object and demand that contract conditions be renegotiated.
