ATHENS – Ahead of his address to kick off the party’s 3rd congress that begins on Thursday, main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras stressed in an article published in the regional papers that SYRIZA-PA is “ready to take on its responsibilities, to heal the wounds of a society that has suffered multiply in the last three years.”

“The countdown to a major political change has already begun,” Tsipras said, saying the party was ready to “give meaning and content to a new start for society, with society”.

He said the congress will “confirm the road map for the defeat of the Mitsotakis government” and SYRIZA’s victory in the upcoming elections using simple proportional representation, as well as the formation of a progressive government.

The main opposition leader strongly criticised the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, calling it a “catastrophic three years” that had led society to “desperation and rage”. He said Mitsotakis had “taken over a country freed of memorandums, with full coffers, which after many years could see prospects for the future, and with his choices managed to take it many years back.”