Greek election 2015 reaction: The ballot heard around the world

The Greek election was always going to be interesting but it’s outcome has resulted in one of the most radical left-wing parties to every be democratically elected.

Is Syriza A brave new party for a brave new world? (Image courtesy of wikimedia commons)

Before the 2008 financial crash that brought the world to its economic knees Syriza was a middling party with a seat count in the teens. However, two things have acted to bring this party from relative obscurity to almost complete control of the Hellenic government.

First the crisis in the Euro that saw Greece forced to undertake massive austerity measures to not default on its debt and stay in the Euro. These were at the order of the bigger Eurozone economies with Germany being particularly adamant that Greece must “tighten its belt”. Unfortunately for PASOK the ruling party at the time the austerity measures were about as popular with the electorate as a 20 foot Margaret Thatcher statue at a TUC conference. Resulting in the Greek people having no confidence in PASOK. The absolute low point for the party was a Skai tv poll taken in October 2011 stating that only 5% of the public believed that PASOK was the best party to be in government. The 2012 elections were predictably a total disaster for PASOK who lost over 100 seats and were bumped to 3rd by Syriza. However, PASOK managed to stay in power after losing even more seats in the second election of 2012 thanks to being the minor partners in a coalition government with New Democracy and the Democratic Left. Yet the cuts remained; and weren’t working. Despite massively cutting government spending the three party coalition oversaw government debt to GDP rise to its highest level in Greek history at 174.9%.

Meanwhile, Syriza had grown to be just eight seats short of being the largest party. Under the leadership of Alexis Tsipras the party had grown by 58 seats in three short years. In 2013 Syriza became the most popular party according to opinion polls and didn’t look back. The message was clear from the people; “we do not want austerity!”. This message became louder as youth unemployment hit the 50% mark. When Greeks went to the polls last week it soon became clear that Syriza were either going to be the largest party. However, Whether they would be a majority government or senior partners in a coalition was yet to be seen. In the end Syriza came just two seats short of the first Greek majority since 2007 and bringing some stability to Greek politics in the process. However, it has seen an unlikely alliance emerge as a coalition was struck with the Independent Greek party. This coalition may seem strange at first; an awkward marriage between Nigel Farage and John Prescott. But what this coalition means is that the Greek parliament is going to go no hold bared against its European counterparts and the IMF in order to end the austerity that has crippled the Greek economy.

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Secondly much credit should go to Alexis Tsipras. When he was sworn in today he became the youngest prime minister in Europe. The man has humble beginnings as a engineering student at The University of Athens. It was here that he became active in politics when he joined the left-wing movement whilst also serving on the Universities senate. In 2006 he stood for Syriza for the first time gaining 10.51% of the popular vote for Athens; two years later he was leader of his party; six years later he is leader of his country. He is rather unique for a politician. There isn’t a tie nor is there gray hairs; he chooses a motorbike over a limo, he has a strong admiration of Che Gurvara and creates a feeling that for the first time in a post credit crunch world the Greek people have a prime minister who genuinely connects with their electorate.

What effects this has on the European Union won’t be seen until months or years from now. But this election victory could be the first signs of a shift in political thinking in Europe towards the left that will potentially change the way the EU operates. We’ve had our own little taste of this with the “Green surge” which although wasn’t much of a surge rather a bump it does show that the desire for conventional centre-right parties is decreasing. Indeed it was not just Syriza that saw a swing in their favour during this election. All left wing parties experienced some form of swing in their favour with the exception of PASOK and the Democratic Left.

Karl Marx theorised that capitalism would lead eventually to socialism which would lead to communism as the final stage of human political development. Maybe this is the first steps on a long road towards this?