If nothing else, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has shown itself to be resilient. The party was founded in 1918 and almost immediately faced state repression for its opposition to the Greco-Turkish War. It confronted the first of many periods of illegality starting in the 1930s, but managed to regroup and muster a fierce resistance to Nazi occupation during World War II. It suffered defeat in the civil war that soon followed and was continually forced underground, but still remained a significant part of Greek political life.

Even after its brief participation in an unpopular New Democracy-led government and the fall of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s, the KKE maintained a substantial vote total, much larger than its official Communist movement peers throughout Europe.

But despite the economic crisis and anti-austerity struggle in Greece over the last few years, its support appears to have stagnated. Many pointed towards the KKE’s hostility to Syriza and criticism of new social movements left it unable to productively contribute to the new environment. Most of those criticisms have been muted after Syriza’s recent surrender to the eurozone, but questions still remain about how the Communist Party views the political situation in Greece today and what role it will play going forward.