Syriza
The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance, best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA, is a centre-left and former left-wing political party in Greece. It was founded in 2004 as a political coalition of left-wing and radical left parties, and registered as a political party in 2012.
A democratic socialist, progressive party, Syriza holds a pro-European stance. Syriza also advocates for alter-globalisation, LGBT rights, and secularism. In the past, SYRIZA was described as a typical left-wing populist party, but this was disputed after its government term and its recent opposition.
Syriza is the third largest party in the Hellenic Parliament. Former party chairman Alexis Tsipras served as Prime Minister of Greece from 26 January 2015 to 20 August 2015 and from 21 September 2015 to 8 July 2019. It is a member of the Party of the European Left.
Following the failure on June 2023 Greek legislative elections, leader Alexis Tsipras resigned, elections were held, and Stefanos Kasselakis assumed the presidency in September 2023. Dissatisfaction with Kasselakis led the party to a prolonged internal crisis, resulting in a motion of no confidence and new elections scheduled for November 2024, in which Sokratis Famellos was elected president.
History
Formation
Although Syriza was launched in 2004, before that year's legislative election, the roots of the process that led to its formation can be traced back to the Space for Dialogue for the Unity and Common Action of the Left in 2001. It was made up of various organizations of the Greek political left, that, despite different ideological and historical backgrounds, held common ground in several important issues that had arisen in Greece in the late 1990s, such as the Kosovo War, privatizations of state businesses, and social and civil rights.The Space provided the ground from which participating parties could work together on issues such as their opposition to the neoliberal reform of the pension and social security systems, and the new anti-terrorism legislation, a review of the role of the European Union and a redetermination of Greece's position in it, and the preparation of the Greek participation at the 27th G8 summit in 2001. Even though it was not a political organization, but rather an effort to bring together the parties and organizations that attended, the Space gave birth to some electoral alliances for the 2002 Greek local elections, the most successful being the one led by Manolis Glezos for the super-prefecture of Athens-Piraeus. As part of the larger European Social Forum, the Space also provided the ground from which several of the member parties and organizations launched the Greek Social Forum.
2004 legislative election
The defining moment for the birth of Syriza came in the 2004 legislative election. Most of the participants of the Space sought to develop a common platform that could potentially lead to an electoral alliance. This led to the eventual formation of the Coalition of the Radical Left in January 2004.The parties that had formed the Coalition of the Radical Left in January 2004 were the Coalition of Left, of Movements and Ecology, the Renewing Communist Ecological Left, the Internationalist Workers Left, the Movement for the Unity of Action of the Left, which was a splinter group of the Communist Party of Greece, Active Citizens, which was a political organisation associated with Manolis Glezos, and other independent left-wing groups or activists. Although the Communist Organisation of Greece had participated in the Space, it decided not to take part in the Coalition of the Radical Left.
In the legislative election, the coalition gathered 241,539 votes and elected six members to parliament. All six were members of Synaspismos, the largest of the coalition parties, which led to a lot of tension within the coalition.
Crisis and revitalization
After the 2004 legislative election, the smaller parties accused Synaspismos of not honoring an agreement to have one of its members of parliament resign so that Yannis Banias of the AKOA could take his seat. Tension built up and resulted in the split of the Internationalist Workers Left and the formation of Kokkino, both of which remained within the coalition. The frame of the crisis within SYRIZA was the reluctance of Synaspismos to adopt and maintain the political agreement for a clear denial of centre-left politics.Three months after the 2004 legislative election, Synaspismos chose to run independently from the rest of the coalition for the 2004 European Parliament election in Greece and some of the smaller parties of the coalition supported the feminist Women for Another Europe list.
The crisis ended in December 2004 with the 4th convention of Synaspismos, when a large majority within the party voted for the continuation of the coalition. This change of attitude was further intensified with the election of Alekos Alavanos, a staunch supporter of the coalition, as president of Synaspismos, after its former leader, Nikos Konstantopoulos, stepped down.
The coalition was further strengthened by the organization in May 2006 of the 4th European Social Forum in Athens, and by a number of largely successful election campaigns, such as those in Athens and Piraeus, during the 2006 Greek local elections. The coalition ticket in the municipality of Athens was headed by Alexis Tsipras, proposed by Alavanos who declared Synaspismos' "opening to the new generation".
2007 legislative election
had indicated that Syriza was expected to make significant gains in the election, with predictions ranging from 4% to 5% of the electorate. On 16 September, it gained 5.0% of the vote in the 2007 legislative election.Prior to the election, the participating parties had agreed on a common declaration by 22 June. The signed Declaration of the Coalition of the Radical Left outlined the common platform on which it would compete in the following election and outlined the basis for the political alliance. The coalition of 2007 has also expanded from its original composition in 2004. On 20 June 2007, the KOE announced its participation into the coalition. On 21 August, the environmentalist Ecological Intervention also joined, and the Democratic Social Movement also announced its participation in the coalition on 22 August 2007.
On 2 September, the Areios Pagos refused to include the title of DIKKI in the Syriza electoral alliance, saying that the internal procedures followed by DIKKI were flawed. This was criticized by Syriza and DIKKI as inappropriate interference by the courts in party political activity.
2007–2011 elections and developments
On 27 November 2007, Alavanos announced that, for private reasons, he would not be seeking to renew his presidency of Synaspismos. The 5th party congress of Synaspismos elected Alexis Tsipras, a municipal councillor for the municipality of Athens, as party president on 10 February 2008. Alavanos retained the parliamentary leadership of Syriza, as Tsipras was not at that time a member of parliament. Tsipras achieved considerable popularity with the Greek electorate, which led to a surge in support for Syriza in opinion polls, up to 18 percent of the vote at its peak.At the end of June 2008, Start – Socialist Internationalist Organisation announced that it would join the coalition.
During the run-up to the 2009 European Parliament election in Greece, Syriza, amid turbulent internal developments, saw its poll share decrease to 4.7%, with the result that only one Syriza candidate was elected to the European Parliament. This caused renewed internal strife, leading to the resignation of former Synaspismos president Alekos Alavanos from his seat in the Greek parliament, a resignation that was withdrawn a few days later.
In the 2009 Greek legislative election held on 4 October, Syriza won 4.6% of the vote, returning thirteen MPs to the Hellenic Parliament. The incoming MPs included Tsipras, who took over as Syriza's parliamentary leader.
In June 2010, Ananeotiki of radical social democrats in Synapsismós split away from the party, at the same time leaving Syriza. This reduced Syriza's parliamentary group to nine MPs. The four MPs who left formed a new party, the Democratic Left.
2012 general elections
In a move of voters away from the parties which participated in the coalition government under the premiership of Lucas Papademos in November 2011, Syriza gained popular support in the opinion polls, as did the KKE and DIMAR. Opinion polls in the run-up to the May 2012 election showed Syriza with 10–12% support. The minor Unitary Movement also joined the coalition in March 2012.In the first legislative election held on 6 May, the party polled over 16% and quadrupled its number of seats, becoming the second largest party in parliament, behind New Democracy. After the election, Tsipras was invited by the president of Greece to try to form a government but failed, as he could not muster the necessary number of parliamentarians. Subsequently, Tsipras rejected a proposal by the president to join a coalition government with the centre-right and centre-left parties.
For the second legislative election held on 17 June, Syriza re-registered as a single party as its previous coalition status would have disqualified it from receiving the 50 "bonus" seats given to the largest polling party under the Greek electoral system. Although Syriza increased its share of the vote to just under 27%, ND polled 29.8% and claimed the bonus. With 71 seats, Syriza became the main opposition party to a coalition government composed of ND, PASOK, and DIMAR. Tsipras subsequently formed a Shadow Cabinet in July 2012.
Unitary party
In July 2013, a Syriza congress was held to discuss the organisation of the party. Important outcomes included a decision in principle to dissolve the participating parties in Syriza in favour of a unitary party. However, implementation was deferred for three months to allow time for four of the parties which were reluctant to dissolve to consider their positions. Tsipras was confirmed as chairman with 74% of the vote. Delegates supporting the Left Platform led by Panayiotis Lafazanis, which wanted to leave the door open to quitting the euro, secured 30% of the seats on Syriza's central committee. A modest success was also claimed by the Communist Platform, who managed to get two members elected to the party's central committee.In its founding declaration, Syriza presented itself as a radical alternative, stating that
"The body we are establishing is a pluralistic body, open to the existence of different ideological, historical and value sensitivities and currents of thought. It is anchored by class in the labor and wider popular movement, but also with explicit feminist and ecological goals. It is already gathering forces and currents of the communist, radical, renewalist, anti-capitalist, revolutionary and libertarian Left of all shades, left-wing socialists, democrats, forces of left-wing feminism and radical ecology. Because it respects and considers differences like the above to be its wealth, it recognizes the possibility of different political considerations and provides ground for both these sensitivities and these considerations to be cultivated seamlessly and represented in the internal democracy, always aiming at promotional compositions.
The organization we are establishing is an organization that systematically takes care of the theoretical understanding of social and historical development and the theoretical education of its members. It draws on Marxist and more broadly emancipatory thought and its history and tries to elaborate it further, making use of every important theoretical contribution."