The former Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras has announced that he resigns as leader of the leftist Syriza partyafter the resounding electoral defeat suffered last Sunday before the New Democracy conservatives who obtained an absolute majority.

“It is time to start a new cycle,” said the progressive politician after his party fell in the elections to 18% of the votes, compared to 40.5 for Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s New Democracy.

Tsipras, who aspired to head a progressive coalition, has proposed a renewal of the leadership of the formation with which he came to power in 2015. Thus, he hopes to move towards “a new Syriza” that responds to the challenges, proud of what he has achieved during a period that he himself has described as “very difficult”, marked by the financial bailout.

The until now leader has confirmed that he will not be a candidate in the future internal process, at the end of a meeting of the executive committee of the formation in Athens. Thus, he puts an end to an “exciting journey” in which, as he has defended, he has made “a small leftist party” the reference point for an entire political spectrum.

In this sense, he has called for the renewal process to be completed as soon as possible to exercise the leadership of the opposition and continue working as “resistance” to the policies of New Democracy and to the far-right parties that have broken into Parliament. Tsipras, 48, is confident that he can work for “a better tomorrow” in Greece from abroad.