The party of government, New Democracy, is no modernising force – it has adopted the discourse of the far right Winning 31.5% of the vote is not exactly the political annihilation that many had predicted for Syriza. Yes, the party suffered a defeat in Sunday’s election, but the results showed that it is here to stay as a strong centre-left force. Critics, many from the left, blame the outgoing Syriza-led coalition government for accepting catastrophic EU- and IMF-driven austerity policies. For them, the former leftwing firebrands failed to do sufficient battle with the neoliberal forces in Brussels and Washington and this is why Greek voters punished the party. A crucial feature of this narrative is its very conscious omission of any reference to the September 2015 election. It was called by Syriza after it abandoned its radical left programme, and “betrayed” (according to some) the results of a referendum in which the Greek people rejected austerity and signed up to acceptance of the bailout conditions. Syriza won 36.3% of the vote in that election. Losing 5% since then does not represent a massive rejection, but it is a major setback. Continue reading...
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