Has the loony left become the loony far-right?
Everyone agrees that the country needs a strong opposition, even the government and even the government spokesman, Pavlos Marinakis, who said as much after the election of Stefanos Kasselakis to the leadership of SYRIZA.
But what has been going on recently? The head of the supposedly left-wing party has come out from right field to criticize the government, practically identifying with the lumpen media and parliament’s nationalist forces. The most typical example is Kasselakis’ intervention on the remarks of New Democracy MP Angelos Syrigos regarding the antiquated Lausanne Agreement, who said on January 2 that some of the articles are out of date. “No matter how much they prepare the Greek people through such statements… they will find the Greek people as a whole against them,” was the reaction from the recently elected president of SYRIZA.
What do we have here? Vague denunciations of imminent national retreats, reproaches for giving a gift to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusations of a treasonous attitude.
This rhetoric encapsulates what the right has consistently asserted about the left for decades: that it is too willing to negotiate and make concessions on the nation’s righteous causes.
In this ideological turbulence in the opposition, it is surprising not to hear anything substantial on the controversial issue of same-sex marriage and adoption rights from the PASOK leader
The conditions, in other words, have been completely reversed. Even worse was the recent reaction of the SYRIZA president to the news of a deal to employ 500,000 Pakistani laborers in Greece. Addressing Adonis Georgiadis, Kasselakis described the scheme as the “Islamabad agenda,” and for a moment it was difficult to distinguish who was saying what. Georgiadis, who once saw a gathering of Pakistanis at Syntagma Square and called for immediate police intervention, is now comparing the SYRIZA president to Kyriakos Velopoulos of the Greek Solution.
In both cases, Kasselakis’ targets were members of New Democracy, Syrigos and Georgiadis, who can hardly be classified as belonging to the centrist wing of the party. On the contrary, they have each flirted in the past with the nationalist (the former) and xenophobic (the latter) extremes of the conservative party.
And one last remark: in this ideological turbulence in the opposition, it is surprising not to hear anything substantial on the controversial issue of same-sex marriage and adoption rights from PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis.
What positions he has expressed on the issue are perfunctory, uninspired and timid, even though it is a matter that is a serious problem for the government and could be exploited, if only to fish for votes. It seems, however, that the exact opposite is true. PASOK does not intend to back the legislation if it fails to secure the necessary majority due to a shortage of votes from the government camp. So what does that mean? Will it find itself aligning with the most hardline forces represented in the Greek Parliament?
