Tsipras in solidarity visit to Vio.Me, 2013. Demotix/Dimitris Chantzaras. All rights reserved.There is nothing to celebrate, really, after Sunday’s elections in Greece. The European leftists that arrived in Athens to support Tsipras are understandably celebrating, since they have a vision of Syriza that is external and more often than not romanticized. As far as Greeks are concerned, no one can doubt that there are honest and well-meaning left-wing people who have voted for Syriza or are even (still) members of Syriza. But after the developments of the last few months the last thing they want to do is celebrate.
Why would they celebrate, when tomorrow the new Syriza-led government has to enforce and oversee the implementation of a harsh attack on nature and the popular classes, having given up its capacity to legislate without the tutelage of Brussels and Berlin, and being under constant financial blackmail by the creditors.
Tsipras' new ‘selling point’ is his fight against corruption and the oligarchy, since his newly-adopted ‘pragmatism’ dictates that he cannot any more fight against austerity and neoliberal restructuring. Thus, the horizon of left-wing politics in Greece has become an ‘austerity with a human face’, a ‘less corrupt’ and ‘more just’ enforcement of neoliberal barbarity.
