In media accounts both friendly and hostile, Syriza’s victory in the January Greek elections was pronounced to be the first instance of a left party winning political power in the European Union.

But there was actually more precedent than that. Cyprus, a presidential republic within the EU, was governed between 2008 and 2013 by an avowed communist and his Progressive Party of the Working People (AKEL). This is understandable, given Cyprus’s small size, its miniscule weight within Europe and, all importantly, the subordination of all politics on the island to the question of its division into a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north.

AKEL, or the “peoples’ movement” as it is often called, is in many ways unique. A continuation of the Communist Party of Cyprus (the CPCy), it has historically dominated the trade union movement, being a mass party with front organizations and a popular grassroots culture since the 1930s.