In brief
On Thursday, 22 October 2026, Alexis Tsipras said the government's approach had produced successive national defeats and retreats, and he called for a new national compass.
Tsipras said the Turkish-Libyan memorandum would let Turkish warships violate Greek sovereign rights a few miles off Kasos, and the articles link this to recent Turkish naval movement near the island.
Tsipras pointed to the EastMed pipeline and the Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnector as projects he said he handed to Mitsotakis, arguing Greece then played a leading regional role.
The attack
Former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, who leads the Greek Left Alliance (ELAS), launched a sharp criticism of the government's foreign policy on Thursday, 22 October 2026. He centred his attack on the Turkish-Libyan memorandum and presented it as the latest in a string of national setbacks. He delivered his message in a video statement and in a social media post, and the same wording circulated across several Greek outlets.
“The country urgently needs a new national compass and a return to multidimensional foreign policy.”
Criticism of New Democracy MPs
Tsipras argued that New Democracy lawmakers were themselves conceding failures in foreign policy, one after another. He said this left Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with no room to stay passive on the issue. In his words, the premier cannot keep ignoring the criticism.
“Mr Mitsotakis cannot continue to whistle indifferently.”
Tsipras's record and the Cyprus link
Tsipras contrasted the foreign policy record of his own time in office with that of the current government. He said he handed over a country with the EastMed pipeline project in the works and the Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnector advancing. He added that Greece had been playing a leading role in developments across the wider region.
He also framed the current policy as a dependence on a partner he described as an ally taken for granted.
“The strategy of our ally taken for granted leads to successive national defeats and retreats.”
Turkish warships near Kasos
Tsipras said the Turkish-Libyan memorandum would allow Turkish warships to violate Greek sovereign rights a few miles off Kasos. One of the source articles links his statement to recent movement by the Turkish navy near the island. Tsipras presented this as the direct consequence of the government's approach, not as a separate development.
What the reporting does not yet show
The statements are a party-political attack from the opposition leader's side, and the source articles do not include a government reply at the time of publication. Tsipras's text concludes that Mitsotakis is not able to carry out the change the country needs, and it does not set out any specific policy proposals beyond the call for a new national compass and a return to multidimensional foreign policy.