By Antonis Anzoletou

Since SYRIZA took over the government of the country in 2015, there have been many “prophecies” about its return to 3%. The first polls after the conference are not at all encouraging for his future and seem to be fulfilling them.

Of course, it is still very early, as what counts is what the counter will write after the election of the new president.

The Opinion Poll for Action 24 pegged the party in the vote estimate at 6.6%, putting it in fifth place.

The sworn enemies of SYRIZA, based on the fact that Alexis Tsipras managed to take advantage of the anti-memorial current and the wave of outraged people in order to find himself in power, always estimated that the “end” would not be long in coming. No one, however, could have predicted all that followed from the summer of 2023 onwards.

SYRIZA’s trajectory has been upward since 2012. In May it became the official opposition with 16.78% (52 MPs) and a month later it came to power recording 26.89% (71 seats).

He assumed the governance of the country with the assistance of ANEL in January 2015, cutting the thread first in the national polls with 36.34% (149 MPs). Another victory followed after the signing of the memorandum in September of the same year with 35.46% (145 seats).

The first fall, which was ultimately “velvet”, came in July 2019 when it lost to New Democracy and emerged for the second time in the position of official opposition with a percentage of 31.53% (86 MPs).

Many believed then that this was the “ticket” for the establishment of SYRIZA in the position of the second pole of power, leaving PASOK out of the game forever. Despite almost five years in government with the imposition of austerity measures, the party of Alexis Tsipras had managed that summer to largely maintain its strength, leaving a strong legacy for the future.

Things did not go well for the next four years.

There have been many discussions in Koumoundourou about the mistakes made and SYRIZA in the summer of 2023 significantly shrunk its percentages. The fact that the reasons for the defeat were not discussed, the constitutional changes that were made, the simple proportional and progressive governance that did not work, but also the intense criticism that Alexis Tsipras received within his party from his left wing were some of the reasons that led to SYRIZA to drop to 20.07% in May 2023 (71 MPs). It was at 17.83% a month later (47 MPs), however maintaining second place.

The story from then on is well known, as it turned out that the resignation of Alexis Tsipras from the leadership of the party was a catalyst for the developments. And above all the fact that the “keys” of SYRIZA went to a person who did not come from his guts and who along the way was questioned a lot.

In this long and tumultuous course, there are not a few parties that have SYRIZA as their starting point. The People’s Unity of Panagiotis Lafazanis in August 2015, with the departure of 29 MPs, was the first major split. However, she did not manage to succeed in entering the Parliament.

Yanis Varoufakis later created MeRA25, while Zoe Konstantopoulou founded Pleussi Eleftherias. The last two formations achieved their parliamentary representation, with Freedom Sailing showing, in fact, a continuous rise in the polls today.

The New Left was the new executive divorce initially as a parliamentary group of “11” and now as a party after the founding conference that ended last weekend. The team of Alexis Haritsis, Efis Ahtsioglou, Nasos Iliopoulos and Dimitris Tzanakopoulos disagreed a lot with Stefanos Kasselakis and left after a stormy Central Committee. The flight of the “Umbrella” of Euclid Tsakalotou, Nikos Voutsis, Panos Skourletis, Nikos Filis, Dimitris Vitsa and others had also progressed. A new and last act of division is the pending new party of Stefanos Kasselakis, with MPs, members of the Central Committee and SYRIZA executives forming it.