The May 21 elections signaled a profound change, unfortunately not the one advocated by the Left. We are facing a profound dominance of New Democracy, both at the level of the political programme and at the level of ideas within society. These elections simply confirmed this dominance, which has been built day by day during the previous four years. Or rather, more precisely, this dominance has been systematically built since the years of Syriza’s government.
The June 25 elections will inevitably be held under the heavy shadow of this previous election result. Both polls and rudimentary reflection show that the correlations are unlikely to change. New Democracy will secure a comfortable independence, capable of making it all-powerful for the next four years. Given the regime-like mentality with which it ruled in the previous period, there should be no illusions on what is to come, how this party will proceed and how it will exercise its governing prerogative.
However, the elections on 25 June are not a futile struggle; they are not a battle without stakes. It may be that these battles, seemingly devoid of immediate and visible stakes, are the most crucial and of the most useful kind. Searching in the dark corners of the labyrinth to find the end of the thread that will enable the rebuilding of a strong, competitive political force that can potentially be a vehicle for a governmental alternative is critical for both democracy and the Left. If this end of the thread is lost in the four-year period that dawns on June 26, things can only get worse for society and for any vision of social justice of any variant.
And no, I do not believe that nothing should be left standing from the collective experience of the last – at least – 15 years. Lost ground will hardly be regained without a critical political mass ; without a political subject present today and tomorrow for the next four years, which I believe will have certain grim characteristics.
I feel the need to say that I will vote for and support SYRIZA in Sunday’s elections.
More so than ever in the last 8 years, when I took my distances, ceasing even to be a member of the party anymore, feeling uncomfortable about political choices related to the periods of government and opposition, while developing deep objections about how this party has evolved into something that did not motivate me personally.
No, SYRIZA hasn’t changed in a way that I can suddenly feel motivated. Nor am I being sentimental about the cycle about to be closed – the one opened in 2012. It is the reading of the context shaped on May 21 in such a deafening way that – on a completely personal and subjective level – makes me want to express this choice.
I am not seeking any role, as I have consciously not done for years, nor am I trying to profit from the turmoil inside the party to make a new entry. I really care about the common cause of the left, which moves beyond narrow party boundaries and becomes a social stake.
I sincerely believe that, in the current conditions of suffocating omnipotence of New Democracy, support to SYRIZA is needed to maintain this common cause alive. It would be the sufficient condition. We must also seek the necessary one, which is another additional stake: That SYRIZA – at its most critical moment – draws the necessary conclusions on why things have turned out this way and how they can evolve differently : something it has not done so far with the necessary boldness.
Translated from Greek Η θέση του Γαβριήλ Σακελλαρίδη για τις εκλογές | ΔΗΜΗΤΡΗΣ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΑΚΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ (konstantakopoulos.gr)
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