June 26, 2023 - 4:00pm
The Greek people went to the polls yesterday — just one month after their last general election. The result was a disaster for the Left, a triumph for the Right and a resurrection for the far-Right.
Syriza — the radical Leftist party that ruled Greece from 2015 to 2019 — was humiliated. After losing 15 seats last month, it lost a further 23 yesterday. The conservative New Democracy party took 158 seats, giving the current Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, an absolute majority in the 300-seat Hellenic Parliament.
But what really seals his triumph is that the opposition is now divided between seven different parties. Three of those are to the right of New Democracy, including the national conservative Greek Solution party, the religious conservative Victory party, and the ultranationalist Spartans. Together they have 34 seats, meaning that, after an interruption caused by the collapse of Golden Dawn, the radical Right is back in force.
Even among the four Leftist parties, there’s not much hope of progressive unity. In addition to the rapidly shrinking Syriza, there’s a small centre-Left alliance, an unreconstructed Stalinist outfit, and a breakaway group of Left-wing nationalists. As for Yanis Varoufakis, that darling of international socialism, his party once again failed to clear the 3% threshold — and is thus excluded from parliament.
Ironically, it was Varoufakis who warned us that Greece is in the process of being “Orbanised” — meaning that Mitsotakis is set to become as all-powerful as Viktor Orbán is in Hungary. The similarities between the two countries are now unmistakable — a party of government that fuses conservatism and populism, a political system that embeds the dominance of that party, and a hopelessly incoherent opposition.
Yet another parallel is that both Hungary and Greece are economic vassals of the EU. The commanding heights of Hungary’s industry are owned by German and other foreign companies, and Greece’s policies are imposed on by the European Central Bank. In both countries, voters have made a rational — if despairing — choice: for local strongmen who can negotiate the best deal available from the imperial overlords, while salvaging what’s left of national pride. Other parties continue to exist for the sake of democratic appearances, but their role is to provide a safety valve for discontent — not an effective opposition.
It’s a far cry from the heady days of 2015, when British Left-wingers like Owen Jones hailed Syriza’s rise to power as a “historic watershed” and “cause for hope”. But, of course, a serious challenge to neoliberalism could not be tolerated. On pain of expulsion from the single currency, the Eurozone authorities ordered an end to the new Greek socialism. The Syriza prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, capitulated — thus condemning his country to permanent austerity and his party to permanent irrelevance.
The EU was, as a result, exposed not as an alternative to the neoliberal order, but instead as its chief enforcer. And yet, across Europe, most progressives pretended not to notice. For instance, when British voters dared to vote for Brexit, the Left largely sided with Brussels. They’ve now made their choice — and the Greek election result is further evidence of the consequences.
Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.
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SubscribeDescribing Mitsotakis as a strongman betrays a profound ignorance of Greek politics which renders the entire argument (and article) moot.
Mitsotakis is quite closer to David Cameron than Orban. His party stands for a watered-down small c conservatism that combines social liberalism (Mitsotakis is ardently pro-LGBTQ), with neo-liberal economics.
The growing support for the hard right comes from disappointed social conservatives who feel alienated from these policies and ordinary people who feel threatened by the staggering rise in criminality and unchecked immigration.
Glad to know I’m not the only one that felt this way. Misotakis is a banker, the ultimate establishment figure. He talks mostly about economics, and has delivered, at least in terms of Greek GDP. I think the “populist” tag is only tossed out because of his immigration policies. Those policies are pretty mainstream though, considering Greece’s role as the primary debarkation point for Syrians and Africans claiming “asylum” in the EU. That role has come with economic and social costs for a relatively small and poor country.
Well, not too sure if Cameron had MI6 (or what is called in UK) under his direct political supervision while MI6 was keeping under surveillance the leader of – say – the Lib Dems, the Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces, at least another minister, definitely some journalists, and thousands of other Greeks in a vague definition of national security.
Or, Cameron then appointing a General Prosecutor to bury the whole thing, while also directing threats against the Head of the Independent Authority Protecting Personal Information for doing his job and looking into (and confirming) those cases.
Nor would Cameron, I think but correct me if I am mistaken, have same said MI6 apparently in shady deals with a private Israeli outfit producing surveillance software (Predator) in an R&D center belonging to MI6 and with said software double-tagging cases where MI6 surveillance was uncovered (with Predator then taking over). Or vice versa….
I think these fall smack in practices by authoritarians but then maybe conservatives with a small “c” may also take pride in such activities, don’t know….
Greece has its fair share of authoritarian parties like the neo-fascist Spartans, the demented stalinists of the communist party and of course Syriza, whose leader Mr Tsipras had repeatedly praised chairman Mao among other paranoid genocidaires.
New Democracy is certainly corrupt and incompetent but not authoritarian. Greece has many many problems but authoritarianism is not one of them.
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Greece has its fair share of authoritarian parties like the neo-fascist Spartans, the demented stalinists of the communist party and of course Syriza, whose leader Mr Tsipras had repeatedly praised chairman Mao among other paranoid genocidaires.
New Democracy is certainly corrupt and incompetent but not authoritarian. Greece has many many problems but authoritarianism is not one of them.
Glad to know I’m not the only one that felt this way. Misotakis is a banker, the ultimate establishment figure. He talks mostly about economics, and has delivered, at least in terms of Greek GDP. I think the “populist” tag is only tossed out because of his immigration policies. Those policies are pretty mainstream though, considering Greece’s role as the primary debarkation point for Syrians and Africans claiming “asylum” in the EU. That role has come with economic and social costs for a relatively small and poor country.
Well, not too sure if Cameron had MI6 (or what is called in UK) under his direct political supervision while MI6 was keeping under surveillance the leader of – say – the Lib Dems, the Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces, at least another minister, definitely some journalists, and thousands of other Greeks in a vague definition of national security.
Or, Cameron then appointing a General Prosecutor to bury the whole thing, while also directing threats against the Head of the Independent Authority Protecting Personal Information for doing his job and looking into (and confirming) those cases.
Nor would Cameron, I think but correct me if I am mistaken, have same said MI6 apparently in shady deals with a private Israeli outfit producing surveillance software (Predator) in an R&D center belonging to MI6 and with said software double-tagging cases where MI6 surveillance was uncovered (with Predator then taking over). Or vice versa….
I think these fall smack in practices by authoritarians but then maybe conservatives with a small “c” may also take pride in such activities, don’t know….
Describing Mitsotakis as a strongman betrays a profound ignorance of Greek politics which renders the entire argument (and article) moot.
Mitsotakis is quite closer to David Cameron than Orban. His party stands for a watered-down small c conservatism that combines social liberalism (Mitsotakis is ardently pro-LGBTQ), with neo-liberal economics.
The growing support for the hard right comes from disappointed social conservatives who feel alienated from these policies and ordinary people who feel threatened by the staggering rise in criminality and unchecked immigration.
“As for Yanis Varoufakis, that darling of international socialism, his party once again failed to clear the 3% threshold — and is thus excluded from parliament…”
Quite. Totally rejected at the ballot box twice. So now he is undeniably confirmed as an entire irrelevance, I wonder if this “Socialist Darling” will now stop being lionised, feted and given airtime by ALL of the UK media…
Let’s hope so! I truly don’t understand why the British media are so obsessed with him.
Because he is a fully paid up Left Wing Luvie, and educated at Cambridge to boot!
It largely came about as a result of him standing up for the Greek population’s rejection of the ruinous bailout being forcefully proposed by the EU – which was subsequently adopted and implemented by the Greek PM – against the wishes of the people (clearly expressed in a referendum).
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The British media loves someone who “stands up to the man” – unless of course they are British and standing up to the EU.
Because he is a fully paid up Left Wing Luvie, and educated at Cambridge to boot!
It largely came about as a result of him standing up for the Greek population’s rejection of the ruinous bailout being forcefully proposed by the EU – which was subsequently adopted and implemented by the Greek PM – against the wishes of the people (clearly expressed in a referendum).
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The British media loves someone who “stands up to the man” – unless of course they are British and standing up to the EU.
Let’s hope so! I truly don’t understand why the British media are so obsessed with him.
“As for Yanis Varoufakis, that darling of international socialism, his party once again failed to clear the 3% threshold — and is thus excluded from parliament…”
Quite. Totally rejected at the ballot box twice. So now he is undeniably confirmed as an entire irrelevance, I wonder if this “Socialist Darling” will now stop being lionised, feted and given airtime by ALL of the UK media…
” In both countries, voters have made a rational — if despairing — choice: for local strongmen who can negotiate the best deal available from the imperial overlords, while salvaging what’s left of national pride.”
We can say the same about the current governments in Warsaw and Rome, and the new government in Helsinki. The Irish seem have selected Sinn Fein for this role, and yet SF is very much a part of the left. It would seem that voters are plumping for one extreme or the other – which would explain why Die Linke and AfD have both prospered in recent years in Germany.
” In both countries, voters have made a rational — if despairing — choice: for local strongmen who can negotiate the best deal available from the imperial overlords, while salvaging what’s left of national pride.”
We can say the same about the current governments in Warsaw and Rome, and the new government in Helsinki. The Irish seem have selected Sinn Fein for this role, and yet SF is very much a part of the left. It would seem that voters are plumping for one extreme or the other – which would explain why Die Linke and AfD have both prospered in recent years in Germany.
“The country’s Right is on the march after this weekend’s election”Welcome to the future.
Surprised Italy and Spain have not been mentioned. But the pattern is very clear. The 4 Horsemen unleashed by the Empire Enforcers in Brussels & German banking have brought shame at impotence, cruel recession & unemployment, mass migratory tensions and the imposition of ultra liberal social wokery offensive to all these native cultures. This counter revolution and drift away from the progressive pro EU Left has faltered only in France. But it gives hope of fundamental reform and a break up of the dysfunctional badly structured Union & the federalists impossible dream of a US of E. Hope our OUR escape from the same regulatory strangulation & decline as a Brino Clone EU Statelet is also invested in this revolution. Our State and even the Fake Tories are still essentially part of that New Order. Only a harsh but inevitable collapse and the re-discovery of enterprise, genuine free trade, freedom and a small state culture will the UK, France and all these battered unhappy countries break free.
While Hungary / Greece / Italy can serve as a flies in the EU’s neoliberal ointment, that’s all they will ever be. Orban has been saying for years that the only way change will happen at the EU level is a rigiht-wing govt in France or Germany. It’s Marine LePen or technocracy all the way down.
While Hungary / Greece / Italy can serve as a flies in the EU’s neoliberal ointment, that’s all they will ever be. Orban has been saying for years that the only way change will happen at the EU level is a rigiht-wing govt in France or Germany. It’s Marine LePen or technocracy all the way down.
Surprised Italy and Spain have not been mentioned. But the pattern is very clear. The 4 Horsemen unleashed by the Empire Enforcers in Brussels & German banking have brought shame at impotence, cruel recession & unemployment, mass migratory tensions and the imposition of ultra liberal social wokery offensive to all these native cultures. This counter revolution and drift away from the progressive pro EU Left has faltered only in France. But it gives hope of fundamental reform and a break up of the dysfunctional badly structured Union & the federalists impossible dream of a US of E. Hope our OUR escape from the same regulatory strangulation & decline as a Brino Clone EU Statelet is also invested in this revolution. Our State and even the Fake Tories are still essentially part of that New Order. Only a harsh but inevitable collapse and the re-discovery of enterprise, genuine free trade, freedom and a small state culture will the UK, France and all these battered unhappy countries break free.
“The country’s Right is on the march after this weekend’s election”Welcome to the future.
“On the march”?
They won an election, this isn’t Mussolini marching on Rome.
“On the march”?
They won an election, this isn’t Mussolini marching on Rome.
“On pain of expulsion from the single currency, the Eurozone authorities ordered an end to the new Greek socialism. The Syriza prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, capitulated — thus condemning his country to permanent austerity and his party to permanent irrelevance. ”
Things had gone pretty badly wrong. There was no easy answer. I didn’t think much of the socialist plan for recovery and it would have been better had the Greeks come to democratic decision to face up to necessary austerity of their own volition. It was the big spending Greek governments that caused the mess, the EU just lanced the boil.
Good God, I’ve just said something positive about the EU, I shall need a stiff drink to come back to my senses.
The crisis was indeed self-inflicted caused by years of profligacy and big-government policies.
Yet, leaving the EU would be a disastrous geopolitical choice since it would have isolated the country politically and left it exposed to the tender mercies of a revisionist Turkish state and some other not so pleasant neighbors.
UK pundits tend to believe that small states only aim to reap economic benefits from the EU. While this is not completely untrue, the reality is that smaller nations also use the EU as a force multiplier. Being part of a large bloc has many bad points but it allows your voice to be heard much louder.
Having said that I am not a proponent of the EU in its current form, I think that massive reforms are required to transform this behemoth.
The Greeks should NEVER have been allowed into the EU in the first place. No ifs no buts.
I’ll temper your shock Jonathan, by suggesting that the way the EU (i.e German banks) lanced the boil – was by needlessly wrecking the Greek economy.
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They did this to help re-capitalise the German banks after their reckless lending before the financial crisis.
The crisis was indeed self-inflicted caused by years of profligacy and big-government policies.
Yet, leaving the EU would be a disastrous geopolitical choice since it would have isolated the country politically and left it exposed to the tender mercies of a revisionist Turkish state and some other not so pleasant neighbors.
UK pundits tend to believe that small states only aim to reap economic benefits from the EU. While this is not completely untrue, the reality is that smaller nations also use the EU as a force multiplier. Being part of a large bloc has many bad points but it allows your voice to be heard much louder.
Having said that I am not a proponent of the EU in its current form, I think that massive reforms are required to transform this behemoth.
The Greeks should NEVER have been allowed into the EU in the first place. No ifs no buts.
I’ll temper your shock Jonathan, by suggesting that the way the EU (i.e German banks) lanced the boil – was by needlessly wrecking the Greek economy.
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They did this to help re-capitalise the German banks after their reckless lending before the financial crisis.
“On pain of expulsion from the single currency, the Eurozone authorities ordered an end to the new Greek socialism. The Syriza prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, capitulated — thus condemning his country to permanent austerity and his party to permanent irrelevance. ”
Things had gone pretty badly wrong. There was no easy answer. I didn’t think much of the socialist plan for recovery and it would have been better had the Greeks come to democratic decision to face up to necessary austerity of their own volition. It was the big spending Greek governments that caused the mess, the EU just lanced the boil.
Good God, I’ve just said something positive about the EU, I shall need a stiff drink to come back to my senses.
Mitsotakis is not of the right. He’s a caricature of an early 2000s neocon, conserving nothing and obsessing over money.
Mitsotakis is not of the right. He’s a caricature of an early 2000s neocon, conserving nothing and obsessing over money.
Hyperbolic incantations to the contrary not withstanding, the progressive left is generally on the same team as Neo-liberalism. Open borders, hyper-individualism, sex/gender iconoclasm. Owen Jones and AOC are equally confused. The underlying reason is that social justice liberals and Neo/market liberals are both LIBERAL…same transactional, individualist anthropology….just a different balance of Market and State… The EU is a market-liberal growth coalition.
Hyperbolic incantations to the contrary not withstanding, the progressive left is generally on the same team as Neo-liberalism. Open borders, hyper-individualism, sex/gender iconoclasm. Owen Jones and AOC are equally confused. The underlying reason is that social justice liberals and Neo/market liberals are both LIBERAL…same transactional, individualist anthropology….just a different balance of Market and State… The EU is a market-liberal growth coalition.
Why do you call the euro, on which the Greek economy was crucified, a ‘neoliberal’ institution? Economic liberals are broadly opposed to fixed exchange rates and some even favour currency competition.
Why do you call the euro, on which the Greek economy was crucified, a ‘neoliberal’ institution? Economic liberals are broadly opposed to fixed exchange rates and some even favour currency competition.
I love Greece and the Greek people, but their lack of any post war productive industrialisation or manufacturing growth has been a terrible failure. Turkey and Portugal have attracted , for example, car factories, and Italy and Holland still thrive in shipbuilding, that one would have thought would work in Greece.
I am afraid you are wrong. Greece was rapidly industrialized between the 1950s-1970s.
Industry began to decline during the social democracy era of the 1980s and was decimated during the neo-liberal turn of the late 1990s as cloth and textiles went east, cement, iron, and shipbuilding south etc. De-industrialization was a conscious policy adopted by successive governments and promoted by economic and intellectual elites.
The current government has made some half hearted attempts to repatriate businesses but the euro and net-zero policies have prevented them from making any real dent.
The callous barbarism of “November 17” didn’t help.
The callous barbarism of “November 17” didn’t help.
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I am afraid you are wrong. Greece was rapidly industrialized between the 1950s-1970s.
Industry began to decline during the social democracy era of the 1980s and was decimated during the neo-liberal turn of the late 1990s as cloth and textiles went east, cement, iron, and shipbuilding south etc. De-industrialization was a conscious policy adopted by successive governments and promoted by economic and intellectual elites.
The current government has made some half hearted attempts to repatriate businesses but the euro and net-zero policies have prevented them from making any real dent.
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I love Greece and the Greek people, but their lack of any post war productive industrialisation or manufacturing growth has been a terrible failure. Turkey and Portugal have attracted , for example, car factories, and Italy and Holland still thrive in shipbuilding, that one would have thought would work in Greece.
Let’s hop that they can get The Boche to pay up for destroying their lovely country?
Let’s hop that they can get The Boche to pay up for destroying their lovely country?
“It’s a far cry from the heady days of 2015”
Check this space in 8 years to see if the Greeks vote to put leftists back into power.
Greece will be AFRICA within eight years.
Greece will be AFRICA within eight years.
“It’s a far cry from the heady days of 2015”
Check this space in 8 years to see if the Greeks vote to put leftists back into power.