The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (), best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA ( ; ; a pun on the Greek adverb σύρριζα, meaning "from the roots" or "radically"), is a centre-left to 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, Progressivism
party, Syriza holds a Pro-Europeanism 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.
The Space provided the ground from which participating parties could work together on issues such as their opposition to the Neoliberalism reform of the pension and Welfare spending 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.
The parties that had formed the Coalition of the Radical Left in January 2004 were the Synaspismos (Synaspismos or SYN), the Renewing Communist Ecological Left (AKOA), the Internationalist Workers Left (DEA), the Movement for the Unity of Action of the Left (KEDA), which was a splinter group of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), 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 (KOE) 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 (3.3% of the total) 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.
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 (Greek: Γυναίκες για μια Άλλη Ευρώπη, Gynaíkes gia mia Álli Evrópi) 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".
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 (Greek: Οικολογική Παρέμβαση, Oikologikí Parémvasi) also joined, and the Democratic Social Movement (DIKKI) 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.
At the end of June 2008, Start – Socialist Internationalist Organisation (Greek: Ξεκίνημα – Σοσιαλιστική Διεθνιστική Οργάνωση, Xekínima – Sosialistiké Diethnistikí Orgánosi) 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 (Nikos Hountis) 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 (slightly below its 2007 showing), returning thirteen MPs to the Hellenic Parliament. The incoming MPs included Tsipras, who took over as Syriza's parliamentary leader.
In June 2010, Ananeotiki (Reformist Wing) 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 (DIMAR).
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 (ND). 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 (adding the United Social Front moniker) 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. "Σκιώδη κυβέρνηση όρισε ο Αλέξης Τσίπρας", madata.gr, 04 Ιουλίου 2012.
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."
Tsipras was congratulated by French president François Hollande who stressed Greco-French friendship, as well as by leftist leaders all over Europe, including Pablo Iglesias Turrión of Spain's Podemos and Katja Kipping of Germany's Die Linke. German government official Hans-Peter Friedrich said: "The Greeks have the right to vote for whomever they want. We have the right to no longer finance Greek debt." The Financial Times and Radio Free Europe reported on Syriza's ties with Russia and extensive correspondence with the Russian political scientist Aleksandr Dugin. Early in the SYRIZA-led government of Greece, the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tsipras concluded a face-to-face meeting by announcing an agreement on boosting investment ties between the two nations. Tsipras also said that Greece would seek to mend ties between Russia and European Union through European institutions. Tsipras also said that Greece was not in favor of international sanctions imposed on Russia, adding that it risked the start of another Cold War.
Having lost his majority in parliament, Tsipras resigned as Prime Minister on 20 August 2015, and called for fresh elections on September 20. Although polls suggested a close contest between Syriza and ND, Syriza led ND by 7%, winning 145 seats; LE polled below the 3% threshold and had no parliamentary representation. Tsipras renewed Syriza's previous coalition agreement with ANEL, giving the new government 155 seats out of 300 in parliament.
Even though Syriza did retain second place-and official opposition status, Tsipras resigned as party leader 4 days after the election, stating that he would remain involved in the party. Stefanos Kasselakis was elected leader, defeating Efi Achtsioglou in the second round. After winning the leadership election, Kasselakis said that he wanted Syriza to emulate the U.S. Democratic Party and move to the centre-left.
The weakened position of the government and the failure of PASOK to re-establish itself as the principal opposition led to talks of a united centre-left between PASOK and Syriza, who are currently considering a plan to have a shared list in the next legislative election in 2027. Major supporters of this are Nikos Pappas from Syriza and Haris Doukas from PASOK. "Ν. Παππάς στο Naftemporiki TV: ΣΥΡΙΖΑ και ΠΑΣΟΚ οφείλουν να ανοίξουν διαδικασίες διαλόγου – Πρέπει να υπάρξει μία ευρύτατη εκλογική συμμαχία" naftemporiki.gr (in Greek) 11 June 2024 "Θ. Θεοχαρόπουλος: Ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ πρέπει να συμπορευτεί με το ΠΑΣΟΚ - Οι λόγοι απομάκρυνσής μου" liberal.gr (in Greek) 18-06-2024 "ΣΥΡΙΖΑ: Χάρης Δούκας υπό «παρακολούθηση» – Η αποκρυπτογράφηση της ομιλίας Κασσελάκη" cnn.gr (in Greek) 14 June 2024
New Syriza leadership elections were on 24 November 2024. As of The leadership candidates are MP Pavlos Polakis, Sokratis Famellos, MEP Nikolas Farantouris and former mayor/actor Apostolos Gletsos. After his candidature was rejected by the Central Committee and the Extraordinary Congress, Kasselakis exited Syriza and announced the creation of a new party, founding the Movement for Democracy prompting the immediate withdrawal of 4 MPs from Syriza's parliamentary group (Petros Pappas, Kyriaki Malama, Rallia Christidou, Alexandros Avlonitis, Theodora Tzakri), the latter two came to join Kasselakis' new Party, while Petros Pappas joined PASOK. Such a move would leave Syriza with less MPs than PASOK – Movement for Change, rendering the latter the official opposition.
Famellos was elected leader of Syriza after the November election.
Syriza had been characterized as an anti-establishment party, whose success had sent "shock-waves across the EU". Although it has abandoned its old identity, that of a hard-left protest voice, becoming more left-wing populist in character, and stating that it would not abandon the eurozone, its chairman Alexis Tsipras has declared that the "euro is not my fetish". The Vice President of the European Parliament and Syriza MEP Dimitrios Papadimoulis stated that Greece should "be a respectable member of the European Union and the euro zone", and that "there is absolutely no case for a Grexit". Tsipras clarified that Syriza "does not support any sort of Euroscepticism", though the party was seen by some observers as a soft Eurosceptic force for advocating another Europe free of austerity and neoliberalism. Since governing, the party took a more pro-Europeanist stance, saying that its regulatory reforms, while remaining in the Eurozone, enabled the government, in the words of Filippa Chatzistavrou, "to better address negative externalities and spillovers between Greece and other EU Member States." By 2019, Syriza was said to have become a mainstream centre-left party, taking advantage of the traditional centre-left PASOK's collapse. Tsipras stated that his goal was to build a broad progressive front without abandoning the party's core ideology and left-wing coalition.
During the party's time in government, SYRIZA practised a soft neoliberal policy of austerity, despite its vocal anti-neoliberalism, which contradicted its pre-electoral pledges, ideological outlook, political practice, and its own history, being stuck in populist rhetoric and what are termed "symbolic politics", unable to preserve its radicalism. Observers' analysis has revealed similarities with the previous PASOK governments, in particular the party's outlook from 1974 to 1981.
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