Lack of direction, blurred message consigns Tsipras to defeat
The “forced lull” that followed the May 21 polls will not continue after Sunday’s disappointing results for SYRIZA, which saw its 31.5% tally of 2019 fall below 18%.
The leftist party has been “boiling” for a month now and good manners are expected to vanish at the meetings that will be convened as SYRIZA has been plagued by infighting between different factions for some time now.
There was much grumbling about the orientation of the new SYRIZA. “2015 is over,” said the majority, pointing out that if the party cannot dominate the middle ground, it will never return to power. The left wing of the party argues that SYRIZA has abandoned the Left in the name of a “single democratic party.”
This pluralism proved damning for the party, as the message that was ultimately passed on to society was blurred. This was also the case during the pandemic, as two of the party’s former health ministers were on a different wavelength, while the scientists advising SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras were not heard. The incoherent discourse did not stop at national issues.
Analysts point to a long list of mistakes. Among them was the fact that no coherent media team was appointed, while the party also wasted some 20 days debating whether the controversial Pavlos Polakis would be on the ballot. Moreover, the party’s collective bodies were “under-functioning” throughout the four years.
Another mistake was that the announcement of the names on the electoral lists was made at the last minute while the notion of progressive governance was not a concrete government proposal.
SYRIZA also appeared as the “sure second,” proposing different forms of coalition governments which caused more confusion if anything.
