A clientele with nowhere to shop

You can hardly call the spectacle that SYRIZA has become a serious opposition. There is, of course, an upside. At a time when it’s hard to watch a decent TV drama with a rich plot and action without paying, there’s something to be said for having a leftist party provide you with all the thrills you can get on a streaming service. It has it all: intrigue, scheming, postmodern characters, suspense, a definite dose of comedy… everything.

This is nothing to be pleased about, however. First of all because it is shocking to realize how far the standards of politics have fallen in this country. It’s becoming a struggle to find a couple of dozen people with something interesting to say and capable of serious conversation. Or of whom you would be justified to have expectations, to hope that if they ever were to govern, yes, something would change. OK, the problem is not limited to Greece. Just look at the battle in the United States, which is being waged between political dinosaurs and cranks. That’s little consolation, though.

As cliche as it sounds, as obsessively as we keep beating the same drum, the country needs a good and powerful opposition as much as it needs a good government. The absence of a proper opposition will increase the arrogance of any government official and cause the despair of the average citizen who wants alternatives at the ballot box. 

The inequalities, the rising cost of living, and the insecurities of a middle class that is under tremendous pressure from all sides will persist, and when the justifiable frustration and sense of hopelessness cannot find a reasonable outlet, it takes people down strange paths that lead to strange or extreme politics.

The country needs two powerful poles around which viable and adequate governments can form. SYRIZA is committing suicide and embarrassing itself. Whatever emerges from this debacle will take a long time to shed the identity of a disappointed faction before it can be seen as a force that’s ready to govern.

Stuck in the same position in the polls, third-placed PASOK doesn’t seem to be gaining much from the crisis in SYRIZA for the time being and that’s a shame because it appears to have some new officials who hold promise. And in the meantime, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis continues to enjoy complete dominance on the political stage.

For the time being, we will continue to watch the SYRIZA drama unfold. One of the realizations it will certainly lead to is that politics is not for amateurs, for people who decided to knock on a party’s door and try their luck. It will entrench the idea that it’s a game for the professional politicians, the products of student unionism and the system. And the vacuum will remain until at some point, someone will come along to fill it. Because as one politician once said in similar circumstances, “Where there’s a clientele, someone will open a shop.”