On the 8th of April, the newspaper Eleftherotipia published poll results, showing the strength of political parties in 2009, compared with 2004. PASOK, the Socialists, climbed from 34% to 38%. ND, the conservatives, in power since 2004, fell from 43.1% to 33.1%. KKE, the Communists, fell from 9.5% to 8.7 %. SYRIZA, the coordination of the far Left, rose from 4.2% to 7.5%. LAOS, the fascist party; rose from 4.1% to 7.9%. The Green Party did not exist in 2004, but in 2009 polled at 4.8%.
Between the two major political parties, ND and PASOK, it was clear that the scandals and the crisis of legitimacy provoked by December would necessitate a house-cleaning, so these two parties were essentially changing places. It speaks volumes that the KKE, the former representative of the resistance to the dictatorship, who unequivocally condemned December’s insurrection in its entirety lost support,while the "pink" or "Euro" communists of SYRIZA, who played with the events of December, gained significantly. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to continue to manipulate the insurrection and recruit its less radical participants. As for the fascists, it is to be expected that when popular revolt threatens authority; the elite will encourage populist fascism, but just because it's predictable doesn’t make it any less of a threat.
During the European Parliament elections the media and political analysts were scrambling around trying to explain away the extraordinary situation that over 50% of the Greek citizens had refused to vote, a social phenomenon directly related to the insurrection of December.
Comments