THE Alekos Alavanos talks about the “comedy of SYRIZA”, which started as a “tragedy” with the third memorandum and evolved “in a theater of the absurd and the comic”. “This is not a dramatic film but a satire, and a very funny one at that” comments the former president of the Coalition and a historical figure of the Left.
Surprised, public opinion and the world of the Left are watching live broadcast the dissolving situation that prevails in SYRIZA. Do you think the end has come?
“I don’t think the public is surprised anymore. This whole farce has been going on for almost a decade. It began as a tragedy, with the support, governance and deadly implementation of a government posing as the left of the third memorandum, which brought our people to their knees before the savagery of the European capitalist aristocracy. It evolved into an element of the absurd and the comic that contributed to the dissolution of this political space. It’s not a dramatic film, it’s a satire, and a very funny one at that.”
The rise and fall of Stefanos Kasselakis have been equally deafening. What was the “Kasselakis effect” after all? Was it the symptom of a deep crisis he was afraid of or the cause of its full manifestation?
“I don’t know this man. I don’t follow his actions much either. Cause and judgment, as you rightly said, are not a disjunction, but a combination for the deep rot of their space. You are right, but it is not a dilemma. It is a ridiculous play, like those of Moliere.
It is a shame that a part of the public opinion and a part of the journalists are concerned with the nonsense of the rivalries of almost unknown persons, instead of dealing with big political issues, such as the US presidential elections, the anti-social measures of the ND, the environment delivered to fire, or watch interesting movies on TV.’
In any case, the removal of a sitting political leader is an unprecedented event…
“It’s just a fun festival here. However, to depose a leader, from an elected democratic body, completely different genuine conditions of collectivity, democracy and brotherhood are required, as long as they are also due to substantial and not competitive reasons and as long as the entire collective has ratified”.
Do you think that the removal of Kasselakis can signal something hopeful for SYRIZA and under what conditions?
“For me, the hope is not in some formation that for more than decades was related to the values of the Left, but managed to abandon them and join the established system that the European Union has created and imposes. But in a movement bold, creative, honest, with the virtues of a genuine and modern socialism, with the principles of justice, equality, conflict with the establishment, solidarity with those in need, in the new generation with philanthropy and positive ambition .
The ambitious tree does not exist, but there are thousands of saplings scattered throughout our country, which if they join forces will develop into a dynamic fruitful force”.
Despite all this, it is the official opposition party and it has a role to play. Is there time or is it headed for doom?
“Each political presence has its role. Another party has the role of the policeman, another of the old man, another of the pope and theologian, another of the scientist, another of the madman. In case you ask me, it’s about the role of the comedian and the culprit. No one can forget that they, self-styled leftists, approved and implemented as a government the criminal third memorandum for Greece”.
Beyond that, do you think something new could emerge from the “wreckage” of SYRIZA with the possible return of forces that had left in the past?
“In the ruins of an old abandoned house you can find something of marble or plaster or iron that is good and nice. But today there is a party, mainly young people, the New Left, who separated their position from the fiefdom. They could contribute positively with a competitive and fruitful program. The first condition, however, is the renunciation and recognition of their great sin that their leadership has voted the third memorandum in the Parliament. If not, then they will remain and suffer the fate of Macbeth, with the bloodstain on his hand.
At the same time, the KKE can play an important role. He has an obsession with his principles, a steadfastness, an honesty, an obsession with fair labor demands. But it is reluctant to make an alliance with other left-wing or ecological or artistic or innovative scientific forces, so it remains stuck in a single-digit percentage.
There is Konstantopoulou’s party or Varoufakis’s party, they have interesting and worthwhile positive positions, but alone it does not show that they can play a wider role. Perhaps the most sympathetic source of political struggle is the dispersed power within society, which I mentioned before, and when a fruitful initiative springs up it will be like the phoenix emerging from the fire. This fusion, rapprochement, dynamic rebirth can happen.”
There is, however, unprecedented multicoinization…
“I will tell you a fact that shocked me. The Spanish Civil War ends. A democrat Spanish poet, Pedro Garfias, born in 1901, from Andalusia, with gypsy blood, arrives in Britain, lives in a small house in north London, next to the Thames. Every night he frequents a folk fisherman’s pub, drinks, at midnight everyone is gone, sits with the boss on the porch in front of the river and they drink until four in the morning. They talk all the time.
The Spaniard about the chaos and suffering of his country from the victorious fascists. The English tavern keeper about his wife who ran off with a friend. The first knows no English at all, the second Gyphtic Andalusian. And they constantly cry together. And they are close friends in a few days. They don’t understand each other, yet they understand each other.
I say this fact, because friendship or cooperation for political movements does not require identity, it is enough to approach, to look intensely and honestly in the eyes, the related values, the feeling, the love, the wonder. If we understand this on the Left, we can take a brave step forward.”
An unprecedented image has been formed for the post-political data which of course starts from SYRIZA but is not limited to it, as well as the PASoK are going through a phase of internal crisis. It is the absence of a viable and effective opposition to the Mitsotakis government. Some are looking within this murky landscape for a new Center Left. Do you see it possible?
“For me, the Center-Left is a political force of the system. This is what the word “centre-” means: establishment policies imposed by Ursula von der Leyen, with some doses of feminism and libertarianism to justify the “-left”. The Left was present, alive, inspired in the great moments of Greek history: National Resistance, Polytechnic, fall of the junta and so many others. Here lies the source of strength, the Left of pain and love, I was silent now, pessimistic, hesitant, until the eagle proudly spreads its wings.”
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