A Triumph of the Radical Left in Greece - A Message to
Europe

By Haris Golemis, Athens*
Special Edition 04a2012 of the Transform! Europe
newsletter
May 11, 2012

The recent electoral results in Greece was a serious
blow to the governments of Merkel and Sarkozy, as well
as to all those arrogant neoliberal parties,
politicians, analysts, EU, ECB and IMF officials who
thought that the European people can suffer passively
and for an indefinite period the extreme austerity
policies of neoliberal orthodoxy, which supposedly aim
to an exit from the capitalist crisis in Europe.

Although resistance's in the streets and hopeful results
in the ballot boxes have happened in almost all EU
countries since the crisis began, it is interesting that
the clearest message against neoliberalism in the EU
came from a small country of the European South. The
people of the most notorious of the PIIGS, instead of
accepting either to willingly go or forcibly be drawn to
the slaughter house, decided to revolt by voting
massively against the center-left Panhellenic Socialist
Movement (PA-SOK) and the center-right New Democracy
(ND, the two parties which, together with the extreme
right Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) had signed the
Memorandum of shame with the "Troika" and participated
recently in the Papademos' government.

One could legitimately claim that the election results
were due exclusively to the fact that the crisis and the
policies for a way out of it destroyed the traditional
ties connecting the lower and middle strata of the Greek
society with PASOK and ND, creating a rupture to the
powerful bi-party political system which dominated the
country since the fall of the dictatorship in 1974. In
fact, within the two years that passed since the bail-
out package agreed between the Greek government(s) and
the "Troika," a large number of PASOK and ND deputies
resigned, became independent, created other political
parties or entered other parties or coalitions.

However, neither the rupture of the political system
happened automatically nor the increase in the power of
the radical Left was a "natural" consequence of the
crisis. Early elections were proclaimed not out of the
free will either of the collapsing Greek political
system or of Merkozy, Lagarde, Trichet/ Draggi or
Barroso - in fact, the wish of this "Holy Alliance" and
of the "markets" was that the three-party government
under the unelected technocrat Papademos remain in
office for two more years, just like Monti in Italy. The
most important reason why the country went to the polls
should be traced to the resistance of the Greek people
mainly in the streets, but also in the workplaces
(through the movement of the squares, the strikes and
mass demonstrations, civil disobedience like the "no pay
movement", the jeering of mainstream politicians
wherever they appeared in public etc).

At the same time, the success of the radical Left in the
elections was not a linear function of the bad economic
situation. History has taught us that unemployment,
poverty and generally the worsening of economic
conditions do not necessarily create a favorable
political environment for the Left. The situation in the
countries in Central and Eastern Europe after the demise
of the so called "really existing Socialism" is a
painful example.

The unexpectedly high electoral percentage of the
radical Left can, to a large extent, be attributed to
good political party strategies: a) the establishment
and maintenance of the Coalition of the Radical Left
(SYRIZA), a difficult alliance of "Synaspismos" with
smaller parties and groups mostly of the extreme Left,
b) the alliance of SYRIZA with groups or individuals
coming from PASOK who had a large appeal to the general
public (in fact the name of the electoral list was
SYRIZA-Unitary Social Front), c) to the appeal made to
all forces of the Left, mainly to the Communist Party of
Greece (KKE) and the Democratic Left (DIMAR) - the party
which was created two years ago after the split of
Synaspismos - to forge an alliance which could govern
the country - an extraordinary ambition for the
communist, post-communist, renovating and radical Left
in Greece. In a country where personalities play a
crucial role in politics, one of the reasons for the
success of SYRIZA should also be attributed to the
personality of its leader Alexis Tsipras, a charismatic
and popular young politician.

Coming to the actual election results, the Coalition of
the Radical Left (SYRIZA) achieved a percentage as high
as 16.8%, overtaking PASOK which lost 30% of its power
and collapsed from 43.92% and 160 seats in 2009, to
13.18% and 41 seats in 2012. New Democracy fell from
33.47% and 91 deputies to 18.85%, but due to an
incredibly unjust electoral law now has 108 deputies
(getting a scandalous bonus of 50 seats - out of a total
of 300 - which go to the first party, independently of
its percentage), while the Communist Party of Greece
(KKE) margin-ally increased its power from 7.5% to 8.5%,
loosing for the first time its dominant position within
the broader Left. LAOS, the party of the extreme Right
which participated in the recent coalition government,
didn't manage to enter the parliament and the same
happened with the Ecologists-Greens, a member of the
European Greens. The rest of the seats are occupied by
the party of the Independent Greeks (a nationalist,
xenophobic party created by a split of New Democracy,
which denounces the "Memorandum" with the "Troika" -
10.6%), the Democratic Left (the party created in 2010
from the split of Synaspismos - 6.11%) and the fascist
group of Golden Dawn, which managed to gather 7% of the
votes and 21 seats in the Greek Parliament.

Although SYRIZA was certainly the big winner of the
elections, one should not miss another very important
fact. Ignoring the funny claim of KKE that they are
communists and not leftists (!), the combined result of
the admittedly fragmented Left in Greece is the biggest
in recent political history, overshooting 30% and thus
breaking the record of the old party of United
Democratic Left (EDA), which in 1958 (9 years after the
end of the civil war) managed to reach 25% of the vote
creating a shiver to the then "free world".

Although it is too early for a detailed analysis of the
radical Left vote, we think that it is useful to refer
to some of its important qualitative characteristics:
SYRIZA came first among young voters, as well as among
the voters ageing up to 55 years. It prevailed in the
big urban centers, where the economic and social crisis
is particularly acute. It even managed to represent big
parts of the popular strata in the poor neighborhoods of
Athens and other big cities, where traditionally its
penetration had been low.

Allow me to close this first note on the Greek election
results with two final remarks:

First, one of the reasons why the victory of SYRIZA is
such important development on a European scale is due to
the fact that, although one could expect that the two -
former - big parties would lose power because of popular
dissatisfaction, the political force which would benefit
from the delegitimization of the political system and
the mounting of social unrest was not obvious.
Nationalist, xenophobic and even fascist groups were
racing to this end, propelling arguments for "a strong,
pure and independent country". Fears and blackmails for
the dangers of an exit from the Euro-zone - that would
amount to a complete collapse of the country's economy -
were consistently spread by the political elites, inside
and outside the country, as well as by the mainstream
media. At the same time, the Left remained fragmented,
with the Communist Party re-fusing to engage in any kind
of dialogue and the Party of the Democratic Left (DIMAR)
failing to define the limits of its juxtaposition. This
is why the victory of SYRIZA was so important. But there
was also one additional reason that made all of us proud
for being members or supporters of Synaspismos and the
other groups of this political alliance. Despite
intensive pressures from almost all parts of the
political spectrum and the media, SYRIZA did not retreat
from its values of defending immigrants - opposing
clearly the, not so unpopular, establishment of
concentration camps for their containment, the first of
which incidentally opened just a few days before the
elections - and of arguing for the protection of human
rights in a period where society was open to mass
propaganda of this type.

The electoral results in Greece are important not only
for this country, but for Europe as whole. Now, it is
more evident than ever how interdependent the European
countries are, since developments even in a small
country of the Southern periphery can create a "butter-
fly effect", so strong that it can shake European
decision-making in its core. This is the reason why
Synaspismos never accepted the dilemma that Greece
should either accept the present political and economic
framework of the EU (as supported by the PASOK and ND)
or voluntarily get out of the Union - a demand put
forward by KKE, but also some groups of SYRIZA. On the
contrary, we believe that struggles and is-obedience at
the national level should be combined by coordination at
the European level for the refoundation of Europe, which
is also the aim of the Party of the European Left. EU
will either change or stop existing.

In our hard times, victories of the movements and the
radical Left in one European country can positively
influence the political and social struggles in another.
The victory of SYRIZA in Greece belongs also to the
indignant movements around Europe, the victories of the
Spanish strikers, the success of comrades of the French
Communist Party and the Front de Gauche in the recent
French elections. We were inspired by them and had the
conscious feeling that we were returning this
inspiration. In this framework, we will never forget the
actual presence of representatives of the parties of the
European Left in our rallies and the moral support we
got from comrades all over Europe.

Despite our victory, we are well aware that no victory
can be taken for granted. In our struggle we have to
face, on a daily basis, two big enemies: a) the
political forces of the establishment who want to
subjugate the peoples of Europe to their austerity
policies and b) the forces of the reactionary
radicalism, the extreme and fascist Right, the National
Front in France, the Golden Dawn in Greece and their
allies in other European countries.

The struggle goes on!

* This article is the result of discussion and exchange
of views and ideas between the author and Elena
Papadopoulou.

Transform! is a network of 22 European organizations
from 16 countries, active in the field of political
education and critical scientific analysis. This
collaboration of independent non-profit organizations,
institutes, foundations and people means to utilize
their work to contribute to peaceful relations among
people and to a transformation of the present world.

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