SYRIZA’s recent electoral victory attracted global attention. This commentary will try to explain SYRIZA’s surprise move to form a coalition government with the far-right party ANEL arguing that both parties share a worldview that explains their co-operation

Zartaloudis, Sotirios

LSE Research Online

Eurocrisis in thePress2/5/2015Greek elections 2015: the beginning of the end or the end ofthe beginning?blogs.lse.ac.uk /eurocrisispress/2015/02/05/greek-elections-2015-the-beginning-of-the-end-or-the-end-of-the-beginning/By Sotirios ZartaloudisSYRIZA’s recent electoral victory attracted global attention. This commentary will try to explain SYRIZA’s surprisemove to form a coalition government with the far-right party ANEL arguing that both parties share a worldview thatexplains their co-operation.SYRIZA is a far-left party with a socially progressive agenda favouring integration ofimmigrants, secularism, and human rights. By contrast, ANEL is a nationalist party whichholds deeply xenophobic, anti-Semitic and homophobic views. Tellingly, ANEL was theonly party that objected to the prosecution of the Golden Dawn MPs.Yet, both parties seemingly share a broader worldview which makes them ideal partners.First, they both argue that Greece’s economic troubles stem from the Troika imposedausterity because of the subordination of New Democracy (ND) and PASOK to the EUand especially Germany. Second, they accuse Angela Merkel for mastermindingGreece’s woes (SYRIZA accuses her for causing a humanitarian crisis while for ANELshe is a neo-Nazi to Greece). Third, they both express anti-western and pro-Putin views(SYRIZA opposes West’s supposed neo-liberalism and ANEL prefers closer ties toRussia because she is an Orthodox country). Remarkably, the new Foreign Minister,Nikos Kotzias, and ANEL’s leader Panos Kammenos have reportedly direct links to Kremlin’s inner circle – a claimdenied by Kotzias. Kotzias has also written a book on how Europe made Greece a debt colony (a view shared byFinance Minister Yanis Varoufakis).This shared worldview is linked to Greece’s ‘underdog culture’ whereby Greece issuspicious of the outside world, the West is considered a threat, economicliberalisation and modernisation are undesirable and Greece belongs to the East. Thissub-culture has been represented before in Greek politics so it is not surprising thatSYRIZA mimics the PASOK of mid-1970s-1980s and ANEL the conservative siegementality of the 1967-74 Junta.Both parties employed a populist anti-austerity / anti-German discourse to exploit thiscultural cleavage within Greek society and portrayed themselves as the defenders ofordinary people against the mainstream yes-men – a strategy reminiscent of the anti-mainstream discourse in the Weimar Republic. SYRIZA legitimised this discourse asan anti-austerity rally, while ANEL as defending the motherland. The economic freefalland the poor management of the crisis by ND and PASOK due to pervasive clientelismpersuaded the Greeks to give a chance to SYRIZA’s promises of reversing austerity whilst keeping Greece in theEurozone.However, with the majority of Greeks favouring Eurozone membership a potential clash with the EU may signify theend of the beginning for the SYRIZA-ANEL government. Moreover, a SYRIZA-ANEL U-turn is also likely due toGreece’s desperate need for external financial support – something that only the much accused Troika has providedso far.In other words, Greece’s new government is threatened by its own populist agenda vis-a-vis its Western partners1/2and its voters. Its fate will be the benchmark for other populist anti-systemic parties throughout Europe. Sadly,Churchill’s quote about El-Alamein feels dangerously appropriate for Europe once again: “Now this is not the end. Itis not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”.Note: This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of the Euro Crisis in the Press blog, nor of theLondon School of Economics.Sotirios Zartaloudis is Lecturer in Politics at Political Science and International Studies at University ofBirmingham. His research interests include Europeanization, public policy, welfare reforms, and the impact of thefinancial crisis on national social policy and politics. His full academic profile is here.Related articles on LSE Euro Crisis in the Press:How the Eurozone crisis changed Syriza and how the party can change the Eurozone crisisSyriza’s win and the Greek elections: many shades of greyGreek elections 2015: a short overviewThe end of austerity in Europe‘The future has just started’: the Greek national elections and the end of austerity in Europe2/2

Greek elections 2015: the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?

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