Syriza: Power to authenticity

Derided by big business and the corporate Greek media, Syriza had nothing but zest, coherence and a vast cultural capital to draw upon to now give Greece a high-powered and respectable government. In fact the country which 40 years ago had fascist colonels in power, now has a government of professors, activists and intellectuals.

In many ways, Syriza represents the aspirations of both an impoverished working class and of young professionals and intellectuals rebelling against the political patronage characterising the bankrupt Greek two-party system, which rewarded tax evasion, defied any sense of meritocracy and bred corruption. 

One cannot note a degree of similarity between the Pasok/New Democracy dichotomy in Greece and the divide between PL and PN in Malta. The main difference is that so far neither PN nor PL governments have ruined our buoyant economy albeit by reinforcing our dependency on real estate and sectors like gaming, financial services and now the sale of citizenship.

Syriza’s victory also represents an insurgency against a European Union, which has sacrificed its social democratic heritage on the altar of neoliberalism. It represents an insurgency against a bureaucracy, which imposed austerity on children and the poor. In some ways it is a wake up call for those of us (including myself) who have regarded any criticism of European elites as a taboo, mainly out of fear that such discourse may feed the xenophobic right wing. 

Surely Syriza has a mountain to climb. It is an anti-capitalist party with a strong green streak, which has been handed the task of governing what is and is set to remain a market economy. It’s a party whose core is pro-European (rooted in Euro Communism) but which has to fight the elites which dominate the European Union to win significant concessions. 

Moreover Syriza had to ally itself with a distasteful xenophobic party with whom it shares nothing but a rejection of austerity. It will be difficult for a government, which wants to grant citizenship to migrants born in Greece to govern with a party which panders to anti-immigrant feelings.

It may be an unfortunate choice which may return to haunt Alexis Tsipras but it may well be that his only alternative to a coalition with Independent Greeks was seeking a stronger mandate through yet another election. This is because all other parties except Independent Greeks support austerity.

There may even be aspects of Syriza’s foreign policy – especially with regards Russia and Ukraine – that may disorient the liberal-left in Europe.

What is sure is that unlike others on the left, Syriza has not accepted neoliberal logic as a new bible. Neither did it shun the Greens with whom it forged a pre-electoral alliance, so that it could to pander to business and energy lobbies.

Syriza has not won power by making itself acceptable to the establishment. Although pragmatic and not dogmatic, Syriza has promised to defeat the oligarchs once elected in power. While clearly not against business and the proper functioning of a social market economy, unlike our Muscat, Tsipras never boasted of being pro-business.

The first act of the Syriza government was to stop the privatisation of the state-owned Athens port and the national energy company, a process which included Chinese bidders.

Still it will be very hard for Syriza not to disappoint a part of its electorate and some of its international supporters, including probably myself. If isolated and pushed from Europe Syriza may well be forced to compromise with the wider neoliberal world order.

Unfortunately in insular Malta many have reduced the whole argument to the amount of money Greece owes to us. This is understandable. What we seem to forget is that if the Greek economy does not recover we may well forget all about this money completely.

Moreover our parliament had voted for a package, which was far from what the Greek people wanted. The only MP to raise concern in parliament on these aspects was former Prime Minister Alfred Sant.

We seem to forget that if Syriza fails, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn may be the main beneficiary and that would mean Greece leaving Europe. To those who argue that Europe would be better off without the Greeks, I ask: can we imagine a United Europe without the birthplace of democracy and western intellectual thought? And to those who blame the Greeks for wrecking their own economy, I would argue that by voting Syriza the Greeks have rid themselves of scoundrels who left the country bankrupt.

It would be suicidal for Syriza to refuse any compromise with the EU just as it would be insane on the part of Merkel to hand over Greece on a plate to Golden Dawn. Much depends on how much social democratic head of states (Italy, France and to a smaller extent Malta) will push for a compromise, which gives Greece a chance to recover from a social catastrophe which has seen thousands deprived of electricity and families who rely on soup kitchens.