SYRIZA’s swift and irreversible collapse
Sooner or later, the situation in SYRIZA will come to a head. The conflicts, the fractures, the ousters and the departures will reach some kind of limit. At some point, the only people who will be left in the party will be those who can tolerate one another, those who can exist alongside each other in some semblance of harmony. Or, more simply, too few to break up any further.
The biggest danger lies in that precise moment: when those who have stuck with the party look around and realize they’re alone, without enemies inside the gates, without anyone undermining their efforts, but also without anyone supporting the party anymore either.
The main opposition party has accomplished something quite remarkable. The tendency is for citizens to turn their back on a party because what it has to propose is no longer attractive or interesting. Other parties may have put off voters with their tired policies, but SYRIZA may be the first party to put off voters with its excess of political drama.
Other parties may have put off voters with their tired policies, but SYRIZA may be the first party to put off voters with its excess of political drama
Other big parties have experienced leadership crises and internal turmoil that have triggered clashes and fragmentation. Their survival instinct has kicked in at some point, however, making them realize that such drama needs to be cut short so that the party can go back to normal, even if some people are left behind. A crisis of this kind can even do a party good by giving it an air of renewal.
SYRIZA seems to lack this very basic element: the survival instinct. The party has been on a course of destruction since last summer, a course that now looks irreversible. It keeps dropping members as it drags itself along this path of self-destruction, offering much entertainment to its critics and causing the dismay of its dwindling number of supporters.
The act that is being played out now is the final act of a course that was doomed to fail because the protagonists had their own agendas. Because of a new leader who wanted to shake things up but was not transparent about his intentions from the beginning precisely because he wanted to win.
And because of groups of supporters who turned into rabid opponents along the way precisely because their initial premise was mistaken: They assumed that a political leader who was inexperienced in the way of politics would also be easy to manipulate and, if necessary, topple.
