Like a meteor…
Regardless of whether Stefanos Kasselakis is elected as SYRIZA’s leader on Sunday, his skyrocketing popularity must mean something. If he is elected, the leftists who have associated themselves with the Athens Polytechnic uprising can retire, literally and figuratively. Literally because the so-called historic figures of the Greek Left will be sent home. Figuratively because his election will consign many of the more sacred totems of the Greek Left to history’s trash heap. If he is elected, the Greek Left will be headed by someone who came straight from America, who has worked at Goldman Sachs and studied at Ivy League schools. No matter how much he claims to be a fanatic disciple of the leftist credo, it is a role that neither suits him nor holds credibility. But even if he is not elected, the fact that a “golden boy” came so close to the leadership of the Left is telling.
His election would also be interesting in terms of what it may say about Greek society. A society that was not ready to accept the prospect of a woman as prime minister will accept an openly gay prospective prime minister? And would his election spook or anger another part of society, compelling it to even more extreme conservative views? The fact is that our society is changing, fast, and it will continue to change – what we don’t know is in which direction.
Greece’s political/party system has in the meantime been blindsided by the Kasselakis phenomenon. How was it that Konstantinos Mitsotakis described Andreas Papandreou’s sudden arrival onto the country’s political scene? “Like a meteor from America.” Sure, Kasselakis is no Papandreou, but this is more or less how the political establishment is treating the SYRIZA reality show that is grabbing so much attention. It understands that no one watches Parliament’s official broadcasting channel, Vouli, anymore. That the political battle is fought for 30 seconds on TikTok. Just as certain politicians finally got somewhere after years of painstaking efforts, along comes this young man with money, chutzpah and communication know-how to turn everything on its head.
Only time will tell if Kasselakis himself will be able to stand the heat if he gets well and truly involved in the furnace of politics. Or he may prove too shallow.
What his sudden ascent also tells us, however, is that the job of politician can be open to people who are not the product of political parties and families. Citizens’ reaction to members of political clans has become increasingly hostile, sometimes too much. We saw it in the aftermath of the Tempe rail crash and in the murder at Piraeus port. But anger is a completely different thing to awakening the desire among truly self-made men and women, private individuals, to become involved in public life. Some will be attention-seekers; others will be opportunists playing a short game. At the end of the day though, there is nothing wrong with new people joining the scene in a country whose prime ministers these last 68 years have been, with a few exceptions: a Karamanlis, a Papandreou or a Mitsotakis.
