A dangerous flirtation

There is certainly nothing measly about 244,000 votes. This was, more or less, the number of ballots it took to elect the far-right Spartiates as the fifth biggest party in Parliament in June 2023. A year later, and now the party has been barred from running in the upcoming elections for the European Parliament by the Supreme Court. 

Given how close the June 9 polls are and how public opinion polls are as clear in their indication of the outcome as they are fluid, the development has sent a shock wave through the political system. What other parties are now asking themselves is: How can we reach out to a pool of voters that includes the “orphans” of Golden Dawn without putting a stain on our democratic credentials? But also how can we slam the door shut on a non-negligible number of voters?

The frenzy to deal with these questions has made us witness to the following game these past few days: abject denial from party leaders, just as their MPs, in the government and opposition, play the role of the half-open door – at least until this is met with a furor of reactions that forces them to retract.

Speaking on Skai TV on Thursday night, the prime minister stated that “fascism needs to be dealt with with actions.” A former government minister, in the meantime, claimed that the conservatives are “reaching out to everybody” and cannot “differentiate” between people.

The leader of the main SYRIZA opposition, meanwhile, said “no” to support from the Spartiates vote, just one of the party’s candidates for the European Parliament – who also happens to be a relative – said such support would be “welcome.”

Accusations that their statements were “misinterpreted” followed, with the “no” being attached from one camp to reminders that SYRIZA had co-ruled with the far-right nationalist Independent Greeks party, and shots being fired from the other claiming that “New Democracy is a mishmash of the right and far-right.”

All the parties claim to be fighting for democracy, but inside the trenches, realpolitik always lurks. This is evident in the explicit and the tacit, in how votes are brushed off just as voters are given a nod. And the more such games are played, the more the far-right becomes “normalized.” And that invites the far-right’s violence into the fold, even as it is condemned. It leads to the belief that this violence will be locked up in the ballot box, anonymously. And to the belief that we can’t see that the door has been left ajar.