Alexis Tsipras, Prime Minister of Greece at the Height of the Country’s Financial Crisis, Will Serve as Policy Fellow at Harvard University
February 11, 2025
Cambridge, MA – Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s Prime Minister (2015-2019), who rose to power on an anti-austerity platform during an acute stage of the Eurocrisis, has been appointed as a short-term, resident Policy Fellow of Harvard University’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) and The Center for Hellenic Studies (CHS) during the spring 2025 academic term.
“We are privileged to host Alexis Tsipras, who as prime minister participated in and witnessed some of the most decisive moments in Europe’s 21st-century history,” said Daniel Ziblatt, Director of CES and Eaton Professor of the Science of Government at Harvard. “The financial and refugee crises in the first part of this century continue to reverberate in our current moment. Mr. Tsipras’ presence on campus will allow us to learn from his experiences in high-level political negotiations contending with those challenges as well as from his efforts to offer an alternative to austerity and to facilitate the historic Prespa Agreement.”
As a Policy Fellow, Tsipras will spend time at both CES on Harvard’s main campus in Cambridge, MA as well as at Harvard’s CHS campus in Washington, DC. He will deliver lectures, engage in discussions with faculty, students, and scholars, and participate in meetings and workshops.
Born in Athens in 1974, Alexis Tsipras was drawn to activism and politics early in his life, leading protests in high school and serving as the political secretary of the youth wing of the Synaspismos party as a university student. In 2006, Tsipras ran for Mayor of Athens as the candidate for SYRIZA, finishing third but nearly quadrupling the party’s share of the vote. In 2008, he was elected leader of SYRIZA, becoming the youngest political party leader in his country’s history. He was elected as a Member of the Hellenic Parliament for the first time in 2009.
After winning 36% of the vote in the January 2015 elections, at age 40 Tsipras became the youngest and first left-wing Prime Minister of Greece. He was elected on an anti-austerity platform of renegotiating the bailout agreement imposed on Greece by the “Troika” of the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). After several months of tumultuous negotiations and a climactic referendum, in snap parliamentary elections in September 2015, Tsipras won a second consecutive electoral victory with 35% of the vote.
Tsipras is the 2024 recipient of the Nikos Nikiforidis Peace Prize for his instrumental role in brokering the Prespa Agreement which resolved a long-standing dispute between Greece and North Macedonia. He currently serves as an MP for SYRIZA in the Hellenic Parliament. He is a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and serves as the Chair of the Committee on the Western Balkans. In 2024, he founded the Alexis Tsipras Institute for Peace, Justice, Sustainable Growth with the mission to develop and promote progressive policies and initiatives for peace, justice, and sustainable growth in Greece, Europe, and the wider region.
About the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies
The Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies is the oldest and largest university center in the United Stated dedicated to the study of Europe. Founded in 1969, the Center has served as a forum for vibrant discussions on Europe, which nurture the exchange of ideas across disciplines, sectors, generations, and across the Atlantic. CES also invites prominent public leaders to serve as Policy Fellows to enrich the academic research and training it advances with insights from the world of practice, as well as support the university’s commitment to foster student engagement in civic life and public service.
About the Center for Hellenic Studies
The Center for Hellenic Studies is Harvard’s preeminent institution dedicated to the study of Hellenic civilization in its widest sense. Today, it stands as a premier research facility, cultivating a repository of materials that attracts scholars, researchers, and students from all over the world. The Center has both a campus in Washington, DC and an office in Nafplio, Greece.
