By Yorgos Mitralias, from Greece anti-debt committee / Translated by Susana Macías Pascua

Only 2’77% more of the votes was needed for Syriza (radical left coalition) to win the Greek elections and triumphantly culminate the extraordinary rise of its electoral results, which moved from 4,5% to almost, very nearly 27% in less than three years. However, New Democracy right coalition and their all-sort acolytes (old socio-liberals from PASOK and their social-democrat apprentices from Democratic Left) are perfectly entitled to sigh relieved: the threat of a left-wing government formation that would abolish austerity measures moves away, by the moment…

On the other hand, the relief is widespread among all those from above who rule us and make us hungry. The euro will not crash, markets breath. Ms. Merkel is overjoyed and Papandreu and Hollande’s supposed socialist International is pleased with the “failure” of those blasted called Tsipras & co. Hence is this the end of a nightmare in which Greek guinea pigs rebel and occupy the “Greek laboratory”? The answer is a categorical NO. The nightmare will continue and remain, and it appears that the new Greek government would be fragile and weak, undermined by its internal contradictions, this oppressive crisis and, above all, by the increasing resistance of the Greek people…

Besides, a deeper analysis of Syriza’s electoral results points towards of a non-very promising future for the parties of austerity. Syriza shoots up in a segment of the electorate aged between 18 and 45 and it guarantees itself a real victory in big urban centres such as the metropolitan area of Athens, The Pireo or Patras, where more than half the Greek population lives and works. To sum up, Syriza guarantees itself the support of the youth and working people, whereas the parties of the Troika and austerity (New Democracy and PASOK) survive thanks to the backing of the population over 65 and from rural zones. A social and political reality of a bad omen for the Greek reactionaries and their international masters, if we consider the fact that it is precisely the youth and the urban population who traditionally make history in northern countries…

Therefore, if we are to learn a lesson from these Greek elections it is that Syriza wins from now on among workers and the unemployed, the youth and popular neighbourhoods, historical strongholds of the communist left-wing where the Greek Communist Party (KKE) used to keep an indisputable presence so far. It has been a radical and historic change, since KKE, which was ahead of Syriza up to two or three months ago, it now finds itself reduced to exert a very marginal electoral influence (4,5%) after having suffered a real bleeding of activists and sympathizers to the radical left coalition. We should recognize that there has been almost a complete re-composition in the Greek left scenery if we add an even bigger outflow, the one that Antarsya (coalition of organizations of the extreme left) suffered to Syriza’s own advantage, as it only obtained a telling 0,33% of votes. Antarsya must do now its best to prevent its crisis from leading to a dramatic disillusionment of thousands of revolutionary activists at a time when the whole radical left needs them.

Nevertheless, it would be absolutely wrong to believe that Syriza will have an easy road ahead from now on, and that it can count on the permanent loyalty of its 2 million voters. The smallest false move its leadership may make, Syriza risks of losing everything in a short period of time, as an overwhelming majority of its electors did not support them for “ideological” reasons but in order that they might propose and put into practice radical solutions for vital problems. On the other hand: that is the reason for its rapid increase from the moment it took as an aim to win the elections and form a left-wing government that would immediately repeal every austerity measure. And the other way round, inasmuch as during the last three days of the campaign the leadership tried to ease their opponents with a less radical program and discourse, Syriza lost its advantage and the elections with it.

According to circumstances we must pay close attention not to make any mistakes, since the consequences would be cataclysmic: the former traditional big parties would not benefit from it, but rather the neo-Nazi criminals, who “came to stay”. And not only in the polls, but also in the streets, where brutal attacks against immigrants and left-wing activists are multiplying. Unfortunately, the lack of preparation of the left facing the “brown plague” allowed the neo-Nazi snake successfully cracks its eggshell. It is never too late for the Greek left to decide as soon as possible to face this newly formed monster just for the sake of guaranteeing self-defence. All of the above being said, we can still draw a few lessons from Syriza’s experience, which came to be almost constituted 9 years ago from the alliance, or rather matrimony, between a reformist left party (Synaspismos) and a dozen of extreme left organizations and streams.

The first lesson is that unity is possible. The second one is that this unity pays off. And the third one is that unity is possible and pays off the condition of being a radical unity. Nowadays, an experience like Syriza’s deserves all our attention and obviously our internationalist and activist solidarity, since in Greece a victory of the radical left is still possible, and there must have been only a postponement.

Read also the interview with Yorgos Mitralias: "We should not seek the solution to the crisis in the isolation within national borders"

[This article was originally published in Spanish on June 22nd 2012]