Politics is back – For the life we deserve. In these -just- nine words, the New Left summarizes the content of the founding declaration that will allow it as a party formation now to participate in the summer’s European elections, which are pivotal as it turns out, with the goal of the 3% limit and then to claim under new conditions her place on center stage as an established entity in her radical wing.
Sarx from the flesh of SYRIZA, the new parliamentary group that came into existence on December 4, 2023, now completes 90 days of existence and through the ongoing Pan-Hellenic Conference at the SEF, now officially charts an autonomous path that had as its imaginary starting point the great departure of the President, in mid-November.
When the door opened
Since 12/11, two months after the presidential elections, it had become clear that the coexistence in Koumoundourou of Stefanos Kasselakis and his associates with “Umbrella” and “6+6” is completely incompatible and counterproductive. And if the executives of the first, more rigid and traditional, hastened to separate their position from the next, the younger generation let a full ten days of introspection intervene before filing the “divorce petition”.
“Reconciliation efforts become even more difficult after the attacks that create a picture of mud” said a prominent 6+6 executive at the time, trumpeting the great escape.
The Parliamentary Group
A few days later, the gathering of almost 100 people in the Serafion of the Municipality of Athens shaped the new venture of the eleven MPs who had already become independent and formed the single action group within Parliament, shrinking the power of SYRIZA at the same time. Name, symbol and central roles gave the first impression of the direction of the new body which, without renouncing “what we have been” intended to make “a new beginning for our dignity, for our lives”.
As a person of mutual trust and acceptance of the two trends, Alexis Haritsis assumed the leadership of a KO which also included Euclid Tsakalotos, Nasos Iliopoulos (parliamentary representatives), Efi Ahtsioglou, Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, Peti Perkas, Theano Fotiou, Sia Anagnostopoulou, Meropi Tzoufi and the two minority MPs Ferhat Özkur – Zeybek Hossein.
How it performed in the first quarter
Having expressed the goal of participating in the European elections in June, as a first reflection of the percentages that it is possible to gather around it, the New Left had exactly six months at its disposal to convince that the progressive space is henceforth expressed by a completely fresh voice. Time seemingly short to manage to organize in the whole. At the same time, however, quite a few to take advantage of the infighting in SYRIZA (which continues) and position itself as a left opposition force against the ND, winning voters from other constituencies as well (PaSoK, KKE, Pleussi Eleftherias).
Especially since the beginning of the new year and with the starting valve of the suffering Thessaly, the president and the executives of the New Left began to sweep Greece trying, through open events and local assemblies (in small spaces to begin with), to build a solid electoral base. The initiative is demanding, but at the same time necessary to convey what is now at stake. From Pyrgos to Thessaloniki and from Kastoria to Rhodes, the routes were daily.
At the same time, inside and outside the Parliament, the New Left made opposition interventions for:
- accuracy and cartels
- the housing crisis
- gender-based violence, femicide and same-sex marriage
- the bloodshed in Gaza with the need for a ceasefire
- the climate crisis
Of course he criticized government policy a) in health with the adoption of evening surgeries for a fee, b) in education denouncing “tricks to bypass Article 16” in order to divide “students into two speeds” and c) in equipment, because “it is infuriating such agreement to be implemented in secret”. He openly supported the farmers’ protests, saying that “they are right” in their demands and addressed the President of the Republic to point out the violations of the rules of the rule of law.
Marginal percentages still
However, contrary to its aspirations and ambitions, the footprint of the New Left in the opinion polls was from the beginning and still remains somewhat faint. And if 2.5% when it first entered the equation as a calculable quantity (GPO, 9/12) was too early to draw any useful conclusions, only twice in this first quarter of its political life has it appeared to reach the coveted 3% (Metron Analysis – 25/1 and Opinion Poll – 29/2). A percentage that will open the door to the European Parliament.
For the rest, the findings depict it moving at the low limits of 2.5% and therefore running out of representation in Europe. In other words, he has not yet managed to obtain as much profit as he would like from the completely fluid political scene on the left of the New Democracy, given that its executives are quite prominent and popular. However, it seems encouraging that in the last measurement, that of last Thursday, it climbed to 3.3% which can act as a start valve.
The deconstruction of SYRIZA
In the three months leading up to the crucial Euro referendum on June 9, it is certain that the New Left is going to prepare at an even more intensive pace with the aim of being “rewarded” by the electoral body with at least one seat.
The aggressive stance of Euclid Tsakalotos against Alexis Tsipras with the exhortation of a rudimentary, as the former minister described it, self-criticism “before you “analyze” the reasons why some of us left” and then the mocking announcement about “the deep existential crisis of a party that now resembles more a television show than a political organization”as a result of Kasselakis’ introductory speech at the SYRIZA Congress expressed a targeted strategy of deconstructing the main opposition pole.
As the relevant researches have shown, the New Left relies a lot on extracting votes from the former “home” of its executives and is justifiably going to persist in this communication game, serving the same purposes and covering a share of those who were disappointed by the sudden turn of the “Kasselakiko” “, more patriotic, SYRIZA.
Alliances in the Center-Left
Accordingly, the New Left has shown that it will be active in the fermentations that have already begun, but also those that will be launched, against the background of a center-left coalition that will stand against the neo-right – extreme right. The presence of Efi Ahtsioglou, and several people from those who support the new attempt, at the recent call of Ef. Syn. was not without internal consultation. about who will stand worthily against the internal sovereignty of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Next to Manolis Christodoulakis and Dionysis Tebonera, the former candidate for the leadership of SYRIZA had argued that “political time does not obey the politics of ripe fruit, because it rots” and that “the era when the Left was in the trenches is over”. So, for her and the New Left as a whole, partnership initiatives are not ruled out that will be “definitely based on programmatic positions” and on “elementary political seriousness”.
The fact that a few days ago he secured the cooperation of Gavriel Sakellaridis, activating him politically after nine years of inaction and in a staff role, is part of this very context of searching and expanding the forces he needs to establish himself. This is a politician who had stood by Alexis Tsipras, but chose to distance himself after the first ten months of SYRIZA’s rule by surrendering his parliamentary seat.
Not even Petros Kokkalis’ “Kosmos” is out of the frame of the New Left.
On the other hand, of course, in order to be counted as a force to be reckoned with in the next day’s debates, it would be very useful, if not a prerequisite, for him to speak as the holder of the precious, by treaty, 3%. Then indeed the New Left will have the inalienable right to influence developments as a regulatory factor and not just a complementary link.
Karpozilos at Vima: A new beginning for the Greek Left and the progressive space
The Step was addressed to Kosti Karpozilosexecutive and press representative of the New Left, asking for an inside account of this first transition period and the political stigma of the following day.
“The national elections of 2023 and the internal party elections of SYRIZA a few months later, formed a political scene with the following common denominator: the dominance of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. On the one hand we have an arrogant government that does not hesitate to bring even unconstitutional laws, like the one with non-state universities. On the other hand, in the opposition space, an image of chaos and conservatism with strong doses of ridiculousness has dominated. At the same time, we see in the opinion polls that the extreme right is rising dangerously. We already have three far-right parties in Parliament, which cumulatively threaten to increase their strength in the European elections.
The first conference of the New Left this weekend aims to mark a new beginning for the Greek Left, but also more broadly for the progressive space. It was the result of more than 120 open assemblies throughout the country, from where the political declaration of the new organization was formed,” said Mr. Karpozilos about what was happening in the political life of the country.
“The new, open and spacious home of leftists and progressives”
Now the New Left is beginning to count its steps. As the party’s press representative explained, “From now on, we aspire to give answers to all the progressive citizens who have left the existing parties and who today feel politically homeless. The central slogan of the New Left is “politics is back”. The slogan is not pretentious, but essential.
From Monday, the pre-election campaign for the New Left begins in view of the European elections. At the heart of our pre-election campaign will initially be questions of the rule of law, where in recent years under the government of the New Democracy our country has taken many steps backwards. There is a general sense of impunity and injustice at the expense of the weakest. We saw this in the case of the Tempe inquest, where the surviving victims and the relatives of the people who lost their lives send a message of concern that something is being covered up.
In addition, we will talk extensively about precision, green growth, the housing crisis and the flexible forms of work that have dominated especially among younger workers, as a result of which we are once again experiencing the brain drain phenomenon after the financial crisis.”
According to Mr. Karpozilos, “New Left addresses every citizen who feels that the current political system either cannot or does not want to save solid structures of democracy, justice and culture. It is the new, open and spacious home of the country’s leftist and progressive citizens. The modern party of the Left that the country needs”.
#Left #days #showed
