It is now clear. In his first speech to the SYRIZA Parliamentary Group, Kasselakis, after the departure of the 11, made it completely clear. To a point at least… He let the numbers do the talking, commenting that SYRIZA in the same chamber once had 149 MPs, then 145, then 86, then 71, then 47; “In other words, we lost 68% of our parliamentary strength in 9 years" he characteristically insisted on the 47 deputies despite the departure of 11. There he confused it a bit. At least numerically. Morally, he says, SYRIZA has 47 and not 36 MPs. So a new political term was introduced last Thursday afternoon; that of Ethical Parliamentary Attendance. As 9 years ago another, equally imaginative one had been introduced; her Creative Ambiguity.
"Obviously within 9 years the country changes. Society is also changing," he added.
Apparently, within 9 years from the boom to the decline, they have not instilled in SYRIZA that the new imaginative political terms do not have a happy ending.
Obviously we are not talking now just about a new political term, but essentially about the moral advantage of the left that we still find in front of us. Kasselakis consciously or by mistake or even out of habit uses the word "moral" to address the emotion that will once again activate the Greek post-gender unconscious, which has its roots clearly further back in time, of the sacrifices of the left and of guilt they brought to Greek society.
And obviously if we want to be literal, we are once again talking about the moral advantage of SYRIZA at a time when the main opposition party is disintegrating with a bang, dragging with it a until recently dominant part of the modern Greek left. Which follows exactly the pattern of PASOK and the Greek socialist area which in 2009 had 160 MPs, then 129, then 41, then 33, then 13, and now 31.
Anyway, communicating vessels existed during the disputed period.
And SYRIZA's blow is just as big as that of PASOK, not only because we are talking about parties in power that were dissolved successively within a decade or so, but because they concern the whole of the Greek progressive space of the center-left which is collapsing, leaving the right-wing Mitsotakis government in sole hegemony her.
Takis Lazaridis, who with his book "Fortunately we were defeated comrades", published in 1988, particularly stirred the waters of the left in Greece by posing difficult questions even before the collapse of existing socialism and perhaps first striking the moral advantage of the left, the September 2020, speaking in a video for Kathimerini, he predicted the dissolution of SYRIZA that we are experiencing today. "The left showed its face for the first time and the course of this party is predetermined; it is also doomed that this part (of the left) will slowly evaporate because it does not represent anything".
Earlier he had outlined the course of the left in Greece. "While the Left was defeated on the battlefield, it won on the propaganda field. He conquered the ideological supremacy that at some point turned into political supremacy, as a result of which we have the power of SYRIZA, which is a part of the communist left."
I don't know if I exactly agree with Lazaridis. Regarding the point of the political supremacy of the left that brought SYRIZA to power. SYRIZA played a leading role in the political life of the country and took power not because at one point it managed to politically head the clear and timeless ideological supremacy of the left, but because the two strong parties of the post-colonial bipartisanship, PASOK and ND, led the country to the economic crisis. And more specifically because the most intense reactionary and punitive political trend that was created was credited to PASOK, bringing about its dissolution and the creation of a vacuum in the Greek political space, which was filled by SYRIZA because, as we know, nature never loves a vacuum.
And here comes the point where I agree with Lazaridis: "because it does not represent anything".
SYRIZA was doomed to fail at the speed it succeeded, like anything based on a pyrotechnic structure that was a product of historical juncture and political vacuum rather than a political proposition.
Having reached the height of drama this week after the departure of the 11 and the entry of a new Alexis into our political life who claims the space, as he says, from the radical left to the social democratic left I wonder if any of this entire political spectrum of the progressive space to paraphrase Takis Lazaridis and say "fortunately we broke up comrades". Perhaps it would be good if young Alexis did it himself.
To admit that it came from a jumble of reactionary votes from the pool of a once powerful party is ultimately stillborn; for the same reasons that its pool was stillborn. To break the vicious cycle of convulsive disaffected and reactionary voting.
And perhaps the one who should be most concerned about the phenomenon is Mitsotakis. Who should not forget that the dominance of his own hegemony rests to a very large extent on the strong anti-SYRIZA front that ran through Greek society after the referendum and the experiment of the first-time left of Alexis Tsipras.
Because as recent history has proven the convulsive disaffected and reactionary vote can only work as dominoes. And in dominoes, when the first piece falls, the rest follow...
*Cover photo: Before filming Poor Things, George Lanthimos photographs Oscar winner Emma Stone on location in Athens and Piraeus for the famous magazine W's Art Issue.