Flow from the center
In 2004, the buzzwords were «Reversal» and «Change.» A year or so later, it was «Restoration» instead. They wanted to «restore» us to a gloomy center and the paralyzed political scene over a society that was bubbling underneath it. That was then. Now, after pledges of change have fallen short, after the failure of «Restoration» left us with a rationalized and tidy center, there is disaffection with the middle ground, regardless of whether it has a right- or left-wing flavor. Protest votes going to reservoir-parties; right- and left-wing populism or anachronism; votes for the nascent factions of a new-Left orientation; the two-way flirt between younger voters and the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) – all signal overtures toward the new and risky. Even if the party does seem to speculate a bit, young people hope and envisage an open society without exclusions. Their take on politics is not client-based; it’s romantic and radical. Similarly, urban voters maintain a less utilitarian stand than those in the provinces. The urban population can clearly sense the winds of change, the growing pressures in the work environment, the decline in living standards. Therefore, they are more vulnerable and more susceptible to the new. Sure, a vote for the Left is not necessarily a radical vote. As Communist officials should be the first to admit, the party came to resemble a complaints box (the nationalist Popular Orthodox Rally, or LAOS, found itself with 10 deputies having ridden on the coattails of threats and innuendos). But the visible shift by the electorate toward the extremes shows that the post-1974 center is in a really unattractive and unproductive, squashed state. However exhausted and morally defeated it may be, it is still dominant because the extremes produce no politics to threaten its
