A party adrift
At the last general elections in the summer of 2012, Democratic Left played a crucial role, as votes were cast in its favor by citizens who were not convinced by New Democracy, PASOK or the populist approach of leftist SYRIZA.
Fotis Kouvelis’s left-wing party also played a crucial role because without it, the three-party coalition would not have been formed, casting Greece into a period of terrible upheaval.
But that was then. Today, since quitting the coalition in the early summer, Democratic Left seems to have lost its sense of direction and identity. There is nothing worse in politics than appearing to be straddling two different sides and not having a firm platform to stand on, yet that is exactly what seems to be going on with Kouvelis and his party.
Democratic Left must think about how the electorate punished the parties it was disillusioned with in the last elections and decide which way it’s going to go from now on, because the weeks and months ahead will be anything but easy.
