The party is its own worst enemy

Main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras may say he is ready to take over the governance of the country, but he does not seem to be convincing people. The public seeks stability and abhors surprises and uncertainty, especially when the clouds are gathering menacingly everywhere and the country is in need of a steady hand and efficiency to deal with the approaching storm.

Whatever mistakes the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis has made, the final account is positive. He may have messed up with the wiretapping affair, but he dealt with all the major crises that have hit the country in recent years with a plan, with prudence and efficiency. Both in the Greek-Turkish confrontation at the Evros border region and in the Aegean, as well as in the handling of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the government achieved its goals.

In contrast, the main opposition party SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance has fallen short at every turn. It courted the anti-vaxxers and criticized the lockdowns during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, it voted against the geopolitically important defense cooperation agreements signed with the US and France, and tried every day to downgrade the government’s efforts to support the economically weak amid the energy crisis and reduce food prices.

In fact, in his arrogance, Tsipras even announced, again, that he would renegotiate with the EU the 30 billion euros we will receive from the bloc’s Recovery Fund, reminding Greeks of the tragic period of “delusions” and the about-face SYRIZA eventually pulled during its governance. When the “first Left government,” deeply ignorant of European matters, sought a clash with the EU and was forced to sign a third bailout, bringing more austerity and costing the economy tens of billions of euros.

Unfortunately, nothing has really changed in SYRIZA since then. That is why ruling New Democracy leads in all polls by 5% to 10%. Even the polls conducted by media friendly to SYRIZA (Prorata on behalf of newspaper Efimerida ton Syntakton) show that the party’s worst enemy is itself. A solid 41% of those questioned believe that their economic situation today would have been worse if SYRIZA were in power (only 28% say it would have been better) while 78% say they are not satisfied with the work of the opposition.

Tsipras may be dreaming of power, but people do not trust him. They expect greater responsibility, serious proposals and a governance plan.