Syriza’s Failure Has Hurt Us All
- David Broder
Setbacks for Syriza have prompted Alexis Tsipras to call an early general election. Yet as a onetime left-wing government reaches the end of the road, the bases for rebuilding the fight against austerity look weaker than ever.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras speaks to the press outside his office in Athens on June 6, 2019.(Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP / Getty)
Let’s be clear: the disaster was even worse than even the most pessimistic could have expected.
The European elections saw Syriza heavily punished by the voters, as its 23.8 percent result put it almost ten points behind the right-wing New Democracy. Alexis Tsipras has now called a snap general election for July 7 — a kind of damage-control exercise, given the trouble he and his party are in.
The spin deployed by the government and pro-Syriza media did not change anything much — nor did recently announced “social measures,” which had more than a whiff of preelection “gifts.” The electorate went ahead and punished a government which has for almost four years relentlessly applied a third austerity Memorandum.
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