SYRIZA: Immune to anti-systemic sentiment?
“People know we’re not all the same.” This is how leftist SYRIZA’s leadership has chosen to interpret the new political landscape. Anger over the deadly rail accident at Tempe may have grown into a democratic explosion at Syntagma and other public squares and produced a fresh surge of anti-systemic sentiment, but the main opposition party believes it will not be at its expense, according to a high-ranking party official who spoke to Kathimerini.
The noise on social media and the apparent rising popularity of smaller parties is shaping a situation similar to May 2012, which is being closely watched. Those were the elections that crushed the usual big players and brought seven parties into Parliament, while four more missed the 3% threshold needed to enter the House, all together gleaning 665,920 votes.
Given the mood, SYRIZA is managing the situation cautiously. Its leader, Alexis Tsipras, abstained from all public appearances until Friday out of respect for the victims of the February 28 crash and has given explicit orders to party officials to keep a low profile.
The government’s failure to establish a much-touted ‘technocratic state,’ as exposed by the train crash, has vindicated criticism over all the other issues
According to SYRIZA, the collision at Tempe marked a turning point for the government, which is trying to pull SYRIZA into the fray of criticism by arguing that responsibility for the accident lies not just with this administration but previous ones as well. Rising prices, home foreclosures, labor reforms, the bankruptcy code, the management of the pandemic and the wiretapping affair did not have the impact SYRIZA was hoping for. However, the government’s failure to establish a much-touted “technocratic state,” as exposed by the train crash, has vindicated criticism over all the other issues.
The main opposition has taken part – and will continue to do so – in all the anti-government protests since the crash, arguing for the need for a large-scale reaction. Tsipras, meanwhile, is preparing to launch an attack on the government – either in Parliament or during some other public appearance – in which he will analyze what went wrong and outline SYRIZA’s propositions for getting the railways back on track, as it is the most convenient and inexpensive form of travel.
SYRIZA’s officials believe that the government lost all credibility the moment the two trains collided while traveling on the same track. They also believe that New Democracy knows that its goal of ruling as a single-party government is no longer tenable. This is also why they believe the conservatives may attempt to woo socialist PASOK as their last hope to cling to power.
As far as the timing of the election goes, opinions are divided. There are those who believe that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis would have managed to overshadow the constant talk about the crash by announcing the polls for April 9, as it is believed he had planned. Others say the government’s efforts to buy some time and to allow public anger to subside before people head to the ballot box will have the desired effect. “All we want is for a date, any date, to be announced,” SYRIZA officials agree, especially after seeing ND’s popularity slipping in the first batch of public opinion polls to emerge after the Tempe crash.
