Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras switched to “social democrat” mode on Thursday, participating at a Party of European Socialists (PES) meeting in Brussels, with the erstwhile anti-bailout and hard left Euro-skeptic political leader calling on Europe’s “progressive powers” to prevent the election of German conservative Manfred Weber as the next EU Commission president.
Tsipras again unfurled his election-year “talking points”, this time to European socialist party leaders, warning against the “far right” in Europe and pressing for “our strategic convergence against neo-liberalism and nationalism, which fuel the far right,”
In the same city but on the opposite political spectrum, main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis again pointed to the May 26 European Parliament election as a “referendum” to rid Greece of the leftist Tsipras government.
“Citizens of Greece, and all over Europe, will leave behind them the lie of populism; they’ll vote for a new Europe, one that can offer more and better jobs to our younger fellow citizens, but also security for all European citizens,” he said, arriving at a summit of the European Peoples Party (EPP).
