Tsipras’ vow: Wear tie after debt relief
athens — A possible EU-IMF deal on June 15 over debt relief designed to boost Greece’s recovery is also set to leave a mark — albeit temporary — on Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s chest.
Tsipras will not shave his hair or slap on an IMF tattoo, but he has promised to wear a tie for the first time since entering politics.
Tsipras’ aversion to ties has been well noted by friends and adversaries, and has even led to ribbing by fellow leaders over the years.
Government lore has it that Tsipras, a former Communist youth leader, last wore a tie while on military service in 2004.
“He was a young leader of the left. Ties do not fit that profile. And from a certain point onward, it became a political statement,” a government source told AFP. “He does, however, know how to tie a tie,” the source added.
In 2015, shortly before he became prime minister, reporters asked Tsipras whether the responsibilities of his new post would lead him to adopt a more formal dress etiquette.
Tsipras — who until then wore casual shirts and roll necks — replied that he would put on a tie “only when [Greece’s] debt is cut.”
After Tsipras became premier when he was 40, making him Greece’s youngest leader in over a century, many of his new ministers also untied the knot.
About half the cabinet’s men emulated the new PM in not wearing ties at their investiture ceremony, a first for Greece.
When Tsipras visited their respective countries in February and November 2015, they each presented him with a tie.
When Tsipras visited Brussels in May 2015, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker decided to take matters in his own hands. As Tsipras walked up for their official photograph, Juncker cheekily stretched his own tie over the Greek leader’s shirt, to the delight of gathered journalists. —