About a month before the second Greek elections, it seems almost certain that the difference between ND and SYRIZA is expected to be about the same or, in any case, quite large. The German News Network (RND) reporter in Greece, Gerd Heller, comments on the significant drop recorded in the popularity of Alexis Tsipras and his party, which has lost “more than a third of its voters”.

As he reports, “the leader of SYRIZA is facing the end of his career. Even Olaf Solz could not reverse the situation. A few weeks before the Greek elections, the German chancellor welcomed Tsipras in Berlin. It is unusual for the head of government of an EU country to invite an opposition politician from another EU country so close to an election, which has angered the Greek government. Tsipras, who in previous election campaigns adopted slogans critical of Germany such as “Go home, Madame Merkel”, relished the meeting with Soltz and at every opportunity boasted of the chancellor’s vote of confidence. But that didn’t help him either.”

Heller adds that “according to election researchers, most of the SYRIZA voters who chose another party moved to the conservatives. And this shows that Tsipras has lost the political center. The more Greece recovers from the crisis and returns to normality, the less people vote for SYRIZA. Times have changed, but SYRIZA still politicizes as it did during the crisis. Tsipras is now a prisoner of his radical rhetoric and his campaign speeches sound the same as they did ten years ago.”

According to the RND, SYRIZA’s election campaign appeared from the beginning as “a desperate fight against relegation. Recently, Tsipras even courted voters of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, which has been banned as a criminal organization. Besides, Tsipras has never been selective in choosing his political partners”, comments Gerd Heller scathingly, referring to “the government coalition of SYRIZA with the far-right party ANEL from 2015 to 2019”.

The German correspondent points out that “resignation is not an option for Tsipras, as he says. But there are already murmurs in party organs and successors are being prepared. The repeat elections, in four weeks, thus turn into a battle for the political survival of Tsipras. If SYRIZA fails to make a spectacular comeback, which there is no sign of, its political future will inevitably be called into question. And in the background the battle for his successor has already begun,” concludes Heller.