Martin Powell-Davies, writing from Greece
In Greece’s 2023 general election which took place on 21 May, the results gave no single party the overall majority needed to immediately form a government on their own. However, the main party of Greek capitalism, New Democracy (ND), was the clear winner, taking over 40% of the vote. It won the largest vote in all but one of Greece’s election districts.
ND is set to be able to continue as the governing party, with its leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, continuing as prime minister. Its clear margin of victory means that ND will not even have to opt to find a coalition partner. It finished four seats short of the 150 needed for a parliamentary majority so Mitsotakis has called for fresh elections, expected to be held on 25 June, which will use a new electoral system in which the leading party will be given up to 50 extra seats, so is expected to give him the majority he needs to govern alone.
These results are a major blow to the hopes of a return to office by the former left Greek prime minister Aléxis Tsípras. His party, Syriza, retained its position as the main ‘left’ opposition party in Greece. But, far from closing the gap on the ruling ND, its vote share fell substantially, from 31% to just 20%, compared to the previous general election in 2019.
Background
How did this result come about? Why has the conservative ND retained its 40% vote share when most Greeks are struggling with low wages and rising prices? To answer these questions, it is important to remember the events of the previous decade.
Faced with a serious debt crisis in 2010, the social democratic Pasok-led government presided over the sweeping austerity measures demanded of Greece by the ‘Troika’ of IMF and EU institutions. Workers suffered massive cuts to wages, jobs and pensions, alongside mass privatisation of state assets. Pasok’s electoral support collapsed. From once being the main party for workers in Greece, its vote fell to just 8% in the 2019 elections. Its vote has recovered slightly, to around 12%, but its betrayal has not been forgotten.
Workers in Greece made valiant efforts to resist the attacks imposed on them by their governments at the behest of the Troika, including dozens of one-day general strikes. But the hopes and fighting traditions of the working class were not just betrayed by Pasok. The government of new left formation Syriza also caved into the demands imposed by EU capitalism. The huge ‘Oxi/No’ vote in the 2015 referendum, rejecting the Troika’s programme of yet more spending cuts, was ignored by the Syriza government, which proceeded to carry out further austerity (see ‘Taking on ‘the markets’ – lessons from a Greek tragedy’ at socialistparty.org.uk). The 2023 election results show that Syriza’s failure to stand firm has also not been forgotten by Greek workers either.
After Syriza’s capitulation, Mitsotakis’s right-wing ND government was elected in 2019. As a reliable representative of capitalism, the ‘markets’ were happy to support Mitsotakis in his efforts to ‘manage’ the debt-ridden Greek economy. The moneylenders were also keen to get their money back – plus a tidy profit – all at the expense of the working class of course. Overseas investment also rose, with profiteers taking advantage of privatisation and low wages.
Official figures show that government budgets are now (just) back in surplus and that growth rates for Greece are some of the highest in the EU. However that ‘growth’ is starting from a low base, thanks to the damage done largely by Troika-enforced austerity.
Greek gross domestic product is still only 80% of its pre-crisis levels. The economy still carries a huge debt burden. Above all, any ‘growth’ has certainly not been reflected in the living standards of most Greeks. Far from it! Average wages are only about 75% of what they were before the debt crisis began. At the same time, the prices of food, fuel and other essentials have rocketed upwards. Many are living in poverty, and public services, like health and education, are in a dire state.
Those contrasting features of the Greek economy were the main features of the contrasting campaigns of Mitsotakis’s ND and Tsípras’s Syriza. Whereas Mitsotakis’s campaign stressed that only an ND government could be trusted with the economy, Tsípras stressed that only Syriza could bring ‘change’ for the better. However, Syriza’s programme for increased public expenditure was only spoken about in very vague terms. There was little to convince workers that, this time, Syriza could be relied on to stand up for them and resist the demands of the capitalist ‘markets’.
In fact, most voters had little faith in any of the main political parties. Bitter experience has understandably left many, particularly young voters, cynical about the promises made by all the party leaders. “They’re all the same,” was a comment made by many discussing the election.
Recognising the need to mobilise younger voters, one of Syriza’s election broadcasts showed a well-dressed older couple laughing at a group of youth saying they were not going to bother voting. “Don’t worry, we’ll vote for you,” say the wealthy pair, before driving away.
However, cleverly crafted adverts were never going to be enough to overcome the feeling of betrayal felt by so many young people who have seen their hopes of a decent future stolen from them. The turnout in the election was only about 60%, similar to the turnout in the 2019 poll.
That cynicism and disappointment at past betrayals were also reflected in generally low attendance at the various parties’ election meetings and rallies. Party stalls were visible in the squares of even small towns, but volunteers were usually talking to themselves rather than the public who mainly passed by with disinterest. Mitsotakis did not even risk a major outdoor rally, although Tsípras did – with Syriza’s supporters filling Syntagma Square in Athens, a few days before election day. However, some of those supporters may now be demoralised by Syriza’s poor results.
Syriza remains the main opposition party. It was seen by some ‘left’ voters as at least being the ‘lesser evil’ compared to voting for the ND. However, far more than ‘lesser evilism’ was required to mobilise the support needed to kick Mitsotakis out of office.
A genuine workers’ party standing on a clear socialist programme could have defeated Mitsotakis, particularly after the two scandals that mired the last months of his outgoing administration.
It was revealed that a section of the security services, supposedly under Mitsotakis’s control, had been using spyware to intercept the calls of journalists and political rivals. For many Greeks, that is a reminder of the unhappy past of a country where a military government was in power, 50 years ago.
The Tempi train crash on 28 February, when 57 people died in a head-on collision, on what was supposedly a modernised railway track, exposed how privatisation and foreign investment have been carried out for the benefit of the profiteers, not in the interests of workers.
The left
MeRA25, a new left formation, led by former Syriza finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, failed to get even the 3% minimum vote needed to retain its seats in parliament. Nearly as many voters decided to demonstrate their ‘protest vote’ (2.6%) by putting a blank or spoiled vote in the ballot box.
Despite his separation from Syriza, Varoufakis is still tainted by his failure, alongside Tsípras, to stand firm against the Troika. His confused programme of tweaking capitalism through various financial reforms also failed to convince voters.
The only party on the left to have improved its vote, from around 5% to 7%, was the KKE (the Greek Communist Party). The KKE election campaign at least reflected the anger of Greek workers. It correctly warned that whichever of the three main parties – ND, Syriza and Pasok – formed the next government, they would carry out the cuts and attacks demanded by capitalism.
The KKE could now use its position to build a genuine mass workers’ party, leading the struggles that will be necessary under another right-wing conservative government. But that would mean them being prepared to build a united front with other trade unionists and socialists in a joint struggle to defend living standards.
Without such a party challenging the parties of capitalism, Mitsotakis has been able to persuade most voters – those who could bring themselves to vote for anybody – that he was the ‘best of a bad bunch’. These voters will be hoping against hope that Mitsotakis’s promises to restore ‘stability’ to the weak Greek economy will be kept. Sadly, given the perilous state of both European and world capitalism, those hopes could soon be dashed.
Mitsotakis also sought to win away voters from the far-right ‘Hellenic Solution’ party by making clear that he was going to be ‘tough’ on preventing refugees entering Greece from Turkey. What this means, in practice, was shown just before the election. The footage revealed refugees being forcibly taken from the island of Lesbos and left at sea in an inflatable boat to be picked up by the Turkish coastguard.
The election results mean that Mitsotakis could have formed a coalition government, if he sought the support of those far-right MPs or, alternatively, some of the Pasok careerists. However, Mitsotakis has decided to wait for a second election, feeling confident that ND will then be able to form a majority government.
What is certain is that these election results show that workers and youth in Greece, just like the working class everywhere, need to build mass political parties that are prepared to stand firm when faced with the inevitable attacks that will come from the capitalist system and institutions.
