Greek Left at a crossroad between the fateful decisions of 2015 and a New Vision
“History gives more opportunities”
It was 2015. In one of his last pre-election speeches, Alexis Tsipras, former star of the Greek and European left and President of the anti-austerity coalition Syriza, quoted the local anti-fascist rebel Manolis Glezos in the capital of Crete, the largest island of Greece, Iraklio:
“Do you hear that sound? History is knocking at our door.”
Tsipras then called on the electorate to respond:
“Open the door so that we can live as we dreamed, what we fought for for five years; for justice and a decent life. I call on you to fight to the end. On Sunday, we will write history!” announced Tsipras.
What all the opinion polls predicted has happened: 36% of voters trusted Greek Syriza and turnout was over 60%! After almost four decades of corruption, scandals and nepotism, the socialists Pasok and the conservative right-wing New Democracy moved into opposition.
Greek politics was making history.
More than two million citizens trusted Tsipras and his team implicitly. Tsipras quickly formed a government with the conservative minor party Independent Greeks. In the 300-seat Parliament, Tsipras’ MPs enjoyed a majority with 149 seats.
I still consider the period of the first six months of Syriza’s rule in 2015 as a priceless life experience: I watched the fall of a traditional ossified political system, taken over by a soft hand, new kinder faces and politicians who were accessible and incredibly modest. The police have been taken off the streets, walking around the Greek capital has become easier, the fence has disappeared from in front of the Parliament in Syntagma Square in the centre of Athens.
“Wow, for the first time we are seeing the whole Parliament!” said the old men I met outside the temple of Democracy at the time. They claimed to be ‘patriots’, they did not support Syriza and did not vote for it, but at the same time they could not hide their excitement at the obvious changes that were taking place. Yes, they were happy too!
The atmosphere on the streets showed that people were happy with the way their government was working. I still remember with what pride the Greeks watched the negotiations with the then Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis and the troika of European lenders. People laughed! Varoufakis had channelled their will and their wishes, and for a brief period someone spoke their language. The Minister for the Environment rode his motorbike to work, others took public transport. People met politicians on the streets, shook hands with them and greeted them.
These were the times! The transformation into a new era was evident.
The period of humiliation introduced by the social democrats Pasok and the conservatives New Democracy, through the austerity measures imposed on them, was pushed aside. The supervision of the international financial institutions — the Troika — remained. At the same time, the elderly elitist twins who have had Greece by the scruff of the neck since the fall of the military junta in 1974 could not be expected to say goodbye. They had institutionalised their policy of privileges and Syriza was facing a difficult transformation at home, along with negotiations with unscrupulous lenders.
In relation to the powerful media houses, Syriza remained isolated. The daily lynchings, belittling, lie-producing and smearing of the new government’s representatives now continued with incredible aggressiveness. The moral compass of the mass media has never existed in Greece. Only the Greek public broadcaster ERT earned the label of credibility for a brief period at that time. The other private broadcasters (Antena, Star, Skai, Alfa and Mega), with the financial backing of powerful oligarchs, all close to New Democracy and Pasok, continued to carry out aggressive propaganda.
The phenomenon of overwhelming popular support, invisible until then, persisted. Even more than that! During the negotiations that launched Varufakis like a rock star onto the international political scene, Greeks at home organised pro-government demonstrations. Tsipras, also because of his youth, had a historic opportunity to become a political symbol, an idol — a modern-day political influencer!
A cold shower in hot July 2015
The fifth of July 2015 has arrived.
Greeks have been asked to decide again. They were asked if they were ready to accept new austerity measures. The answer: yes or no. Today, the infamous “Ohi Referendum” was a clear indication for many that in the crucial negotiations with the financial institutions, the Tsipras government has doubts.
“I don’t understand what we are supposed to decide again! When we elected them, we gave them a voice to fight the Memorandum, just as they promised. That is why they were given a mandate. Why should we decide again on something we already decided in January?” some Greeks explained to me at the time.
Despite the immense pressure, the banking speculation, the threats of bankruptcy for Greece and the closed banks, the people once again showed their absolute support for the Tsipras’ government: more than 61% of the people decided that they did not want new austerity measures.
But behind the scenes, the Tsipras government already had another plan.
The Syriza leadership voted in favour of a new austerity package, the so-called Fourth Memorandum, and on 13 July, despite the people’s decision to the contrary, Parliament passed three years of drastic new measures in exchange for a new loan. Tsipras did not have the support of all his MPs in this — one third of them strongly protested against the party’s decision at the time. Rebels inside of Syriza were branded as “traitors”. Tsipras had to seek support from his former critics, New Democracy and Pasok. What a twist!
A tough financial negotiator on the international political floor, Varoufakis was removed from the team, other popular politicians such as the head of parliament, Zoi Konstantopoulou, and the energy minister, Panayotis Lafazanis, also left. The old man of the Greek left, Manolis Glezos, has left, as has the economist Kostas Lapavitsas. The energetic and ever-present Syriza youth on the street also rebelled fiercely against the policies of the party leadership. Most of them have left this party’s small organ.
In September of the same year, Tsipras, now with some new faces, called elections, which he won again. There was no time for pre-election campaigning. Syriza now had to drop terms such as “austerity” and “lenders” from its speeches. They won with similar support to January but lost some 300 thousand voters. The celebrations did not last long, there was no reason to rejoice, the enthusiasm disappeared from the streets.
Varoufakis, the Mick Jagger of economics, on the wings of the fame he had won at the Brussels negotiating table, together with a bunch of other European intellectuals, founded a pan-European political network, Diem25. In Greece, his party Mera25 is considered extremely progressive, a kind of feminist-green-European intellectual political project. In the last 2019 elections, they entered parliament for the first time.
The period of enthusiasm has passed, the Greeks have became politically passive, disillusioned and left on their own.
“Greece alone against Schaüble”
Today, Syriza is old, there is no energy, no boldness, no dynamism. Its sub-youth — once an integral part of the vociferous Greek protests — is sidelined in the streets. Their name is unpopular among the Greek left, which wants progressiveness and difference. Despite all this, it remains the largest opposition force and the second most popular party in the country.
“The pandemic has made it difficult for us to act and to be active on the streets,” Rania Svigou, a Syriza member in charge of public relations, tells us in the Athens centre. “You have to understand that the Greek left has no place in the mass media, which is true for all left-wing parties. We are forced to build our platform on the streets, in universities, etc.”, she explains.
Today, Syriza remains a rebellious critical voice against the brutal reforms of the conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which are mowing against the environment, public universities, healthcare and the working class, but it is effectively without influence and, of course, without power.
“We feel a responsibility to our voters”, says Svigou, who stresses that Syriza is still trying to create a space where all left-wing and progressive citizens can find their voice. She describes the period of governance between 2015–2019 as “challenging”, mainly due to international pressure.
“Signing the agreement after the July referendum was not what we in the party wanted at the beginning of 2015, but there was no other option”, says Svigou, adding, “The European Union is run by right-wing forces and we were the only progressive government at the time. We were alone. Greece alone against Schaubel.”
In 2015, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble proposed plan b to Greek government representatives: leaving the eurozone.
“This was never an option for us and would have meant disaster for the Greeks,” says Svigou.
We remind the Syriza spokeswoman that the people were on their side, prepared for the consequences, even the bankruptcy of Greece. She argues that the parliamentary elections in September 2015 showed that the Greek people still trusted them and that their decisions were the right ones.
“Remember: we were dealing with internal disputes, the party lost support, but we still won”, she recalls, adding: “I think Tsipras’ honesty contributed to that. He was telling the truth: we will sign the agreement, but we will implement the measures in the best possible way.”
Since 2018, when the financial institutions released Greece from financial supervision, the party has, according to its spokesperson, implemented a series of reforms that have taken into account workers’ rights, including: raising the minimum wage, environmental laws, the protection of workers’ rights, etc. The Prespa agreement with North Macedonia. During that one-year period, Syriza also reformed and modernised the criminal legislation and introduced changes to the outdated Criminal Code.
The Tsipras party effectively ran the country autonomously for only one year.
“History gives more opportunities”
“Everything we did was right and we still think so six years later,” Svigou tells us.
After the end of the 2019 mandate, the party lost the elections and Greeks turned away from political action in disappointment. Elections are less and less attended, and a crowd of several thousand heads on the streets is a rarity.
If they had won today, would they have done anything differently?
“Everything could have been different because we would not have had the burden of the troika. The government could actually work in an open environment, because we would not have the constant pressure of the financial institutions that controlled our activities,” he explains.
Svigu also turns to Europe and says that today they would be facing much more favourable conditions there, because other countries are now also governed by progressive leaders. Syriza would not be alone on the Brussels floor.
“Today we see ourselves in Europe as a bridge between left-wing, social and green parties”, she says of the European integration of progressive forces in Europe.
“The right-wing parties are losing support, only progressive political families (left-wing, greens, socialists) can offer an alternative vision of Europe. But none of these bodies can win alone. Integration is essential”, she concludes.
The European political picture may be more favourable to Syriza today, but at home the party is constantly engaged in polishing its image and rebuilding a colourful left-wing platform that was one of the most progressive, vocal and distinctive concepts in the European left between 2010–2015. Its specificity was the small movements that emerged from the rebellious underground of students, workers, intellectuals, artists, the unemployed, the discarded, the forgotten and the disillusioned.
“Today, involvement in political parties is not popular as it was 20 years ago. At the moment, we are focused on finding support among young people who don’t know what their future will be and among unemployed women,” she reveals.
The leadership of the party will remain the same in the future: Tsipras is not leaving, no new name is mentioned. Today, Syriza has a stable electorate and support and its leader remains the main critic of Mitsotakis’ undoubtedly arrogant policies.
We asked the media voice of Syriza, if Tsipras reacted when history knocked on his door in 2015?
“History does not knock on the door just once. There are several opportunities that allow us to turn the page and to build a better future”, Syriza’s spokesperson, Rania Svigou concludes under the Greek Syntagma Parliament.
Varufakis has built an alternative
The spokeswoman for Greece’s largest opposition party refuses to talk about former Finance Minister in the first Tsipras government, Varoufakis.
“We do not comment on his decisions and statements,” she says.
We go to the spokesman of Varoufakis’ party Mera25, Kostas Daskas.
“Our party believes that if we want to implement a progressive policy in this country, we will have to confront the troika,” he tells us, adding, “We will in no way align our political programme with the lenders, as Syriza has done.”
Mera25 has eight MPs in Parliament and is now the fourth largest opposition party in the country.
“We always have a plan b — a strategy to get the country out of an economic jam, should one arise,” Daskas explains.
Mera25 has very concrete demands: for example, opposition to the excavations in the Eastern Mediterranean, more rights for the LGBTQ community, reform of the security units and the dismantling of violent police forces (Mat, Delta, Dias) are among them. Varoufakis has managed to gather an extremely progressive feminist, intellectual and green team.
But all Greek left political parties today bear the burden left by Syriza in 2015.
“Today, the Greek left is in a phase of reorganisation, but at the same time at a turning point. Syriza has lost the trust of the people, on the other hand we have accumilated part of the voters who voted ‘No’ in the July 2015 referendum”, says a spokesperson for Varoufakis’ party.
Today, Mera25 has an office in every region of Greece. But everywhere they are dealing with similar problems: one, according to Daskakis, is the people’s distrust of the Greek left, which was fatally affected by the referendum, and the other is the media blockade they are exposed to.
“Few media channel our message to the public and the whole left is dealing with these problems,” he tells us. “In addition, we meet people in rural areas who first of all need to be informed about the basic problems that bother our society, because they learn nothing from the mass media,” Daskakis explains.
He says they have adopted “guerrilla tactics”, supporting movements from below, reaching out to people “up close”, handing out leaflets, and having an online radio “RadioMera” on their website. They are also a regular presence on the street, supporting workers’ protests, demonstrations in support of human rights, etc. The party boasts the largest number of women in the Greek Parliament.
“In our parliamentary party we have people who make a difference in the Greek political arena. In addition to Varufakis, there is Sofia Sakorafa, a former athlete and a fighter for the rights of the Palestinian people. And Kriton Arsenis, who has a long record of environmental activism. Among the MEPs, we find a lawyer, an artist, etc.” he describes.
Mera25 is very active in the international field, especially as the party’s main ambassador. Today, for example, they are forging new relations in England, and recently Varoufakis visited Slovenia, where he met Slavoj Žižek.
But what about at home? What would they do if history knocked on their door?
“We will set a clear goal and stick to it, we will not deviate from our promises. A return to the national currency is a viable option for us”, concludes Daskakis.
The damage done by Syriza will be difficult to repair. People need to forget the experience they had in the first place in order to give alternatives a chance.
It is hard to believe that such economic-political-social momentum will be regained any time soon. Tsipras had the opportunity to become the leader of a progressive European political revolution.
History may indeed offer more opportunities, but they are not all equal.
The article was originally published in Slovenian: Grška levica na razpotju med usodnimi odločitvami leta 2015 in novo vizijo (vecer.com)
