Galery

1

In 1995, long-time General Secretary of the Communist Party of Greece Charilaos Florakis became the first leader of the Greek Left, who visited Mount Athos in the company of friends and expressed admiration for what he saw.

Almost two decades later SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has also set off to the no-women "Garden of the Virgin" for a surprise two-day visit.

The visit was announced by the press centre of the party with a short message. Party representatives, however, state that Tsipras has left for Mount Athos to keep the promise he made to a group of monks who visited him in his office in Parliament last December.

According to them, the leader of SYRIZA no longer wanted to postpone his visit to Mount Athos, which he admired, recognizing its specific religious, historical and cultural significance.

Alexis Tsipras was welcomed at Dafni port by administrative head of Mount Athos Aristos Kasmiroglou. The SYRIZA delegation also involves chief of Tsipras’ staff Nikos Pappas, party MP from Thessaloniki Yiannis Amanatidis and coordinator of religious affairs of the party Makis Likopoulous.

After arriving in the capital of Mount Athos, Karies, SYRIZA's leader visited "Protatos" monastery that houses the "Axion Estin" icon and met with the administration of the monastic community.

During his two-day visit Tsipras will visit four monasteries and all state institutions, including the customs, port authorities, health centre, police station and the fire department.

The visit was widely discussed in comments below the articles posted by information websites and on social networks. The majority of users do not want to accept the news as real because of the attitude of the left party towards religion and because Tsipras himself has never demonstrated in public that he is a believer.

The majority of Greeks see behind the move of the leader of SYRIZA nothing more than an attempt to attract more voters in the next elections that the party believes will take place very soon.