The ideological divide today
The political scene in Greece and in many other democracies shows that the old ideological divisions are dying out, giving way to the distinction between those who are conscious of reality and those who live in their fantasies. In our country, Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy reigns supreme, as if alone on the political stage, proffering solutions to problems which in the past would have benefited the opposition parties. In the United States, Donald Trump’s campaign for a second presidency proves the seductive charm that dangerous demagogues exert on those who would impose their simplistic thinking on reality, indifferent to the outcome.
For every country, the climate crisis, energy insecurity, mass migration, unchecked technological developments, high prices and other problems demand collective and coordinated action at the national and international level. And yet, in ever more countries, parties gain by denying this reality. In Greece, 61 percent of respondents in a recent poll named high prices as the country’s number one problem, followed by healthcare, unemployment and education (MRB 12/12/23).
In the past, these issues would allow the opposition to exploit the people’s anger, demanding immediate solutions (realistic or utopian) and harvesting votes. But New Democracy’s hegemony and the absence of an opposition show that despite the government’s mistakes, the citizens see it as the only possible source of solutions. It is not strange that polls suggest that if elections were held today, ND’s percentage would exceed the total of the next three (leftist) parties, as socialist PASOK and the Communist Party (KKE) have invested in inertia, whereas leftist SYRIZA is spinning like a dervish around its strategic void.
The disastrous wishful thinking of past years, which so benefited SYRIZA, has created a strong backlash and the need for politics based on policy. In this, we may dare to say that Greece is steps ahead of the United States, Brexit Britain, and other countries where so many still believe that they have the right to impose their will on others. There, as in Greece, the new ideological gap is between those who proffer solutions and the rest. Who will win is not a given. What is undeniable, though, is the need for solutions that are effective and just.
