Hollande, Gentiloni, Schultz in Athens for Tsipras

As prime minister SYRIZA president, Alexis Tsipras had chosen the role of “bridge builder” in the European progressive space. Everything shows that he wants to maintain the same role today, from another position: according to information, three personalities with a socialist sign, the former president of France François Hollande, the former prime minister of Italy and Commissioner for the Economy of the Commission Paolo Gentiloni and the former president of the European Parliament and current president of the Friedrich Ebert Institute of the German Social Democrats Martin Schulz have “locked” their presence at the International Conference on Peace and Sustainable Development co-organized by the Tsipras Institute and the Zoran Zaev Institute on June 17 and 18.

All three of these persons, in addition to maintaining close relations with the former president of SYRIZA, have served in critical positions of responsibility and come from three countries with a rich center-left tradition. They responded to Tsipras’ call and will take the plane to Athens a week after the European elections, sending, apart from the demands of the conference, a message of cooperation of the progressive forces.

Tsipras’ history with all three figures of European social democracy, with whom he maintains strong channels of communication to this day, has its roots in the crisis period.

The acceptance of the proposal to speak at the Conference is not unrelated to the positive way that all three see the Prespa Agreement, led by the hosts Tsipras-Zaev, mainly for the perspective it created for European enlargement in the Western Balkans.

• Francois Hollande met the former prime minister during the difficult negotiations in the summer of 2015, with testimony from those days describing the French president as a staunch supporter of Greece and its stay in the eurozone. A year later, Hollande was the person who was convinced by Tsipras for the creation of the Summit of the countries of the European South that took place for the first time in Athens, while he was also the one who played a decisive role in the presence of Tsipras as an observer in his Pre-Synods PES.
• Paolo Gentiloni he was also present at the Synod of the South as (then) Prime Minister of Italy. His friendship with Tsipras as well as the good communication he maintains with active actors of PES were also confirmed recently, when Gentiloni visited Greece and one of the first appointments he made was at Tsipras’ new office, on Amalias Street, with an agenda which was about the European developments and correlations of the next day.
• Martin Schulz he last showed his ties with Tsipras by inviting him to speak in Berlin on the occasion of Europe Day: “Alexis and I are friends” he said in his introduction a few weeks ago in the German capital. “I think not only the Greeks, but also the Germans, were not proud of everything that the European Union undertook against the Greek people,” he stressed, noting, addressing the former president of SYRIZA, that “in difficult times, he kept the country together and was a contribution in keeping Europe united”.