Despite the historic blackmail of 2015, despite the backtracking and communication failures, despite the intertwined flirtation of members of the central staff with underground investors, despite the defeat of 2019, SYRIZA held out. And he endured because it convinced that it can be the answer to neoliberal restoration. The moment he managed to save what survived despite the suffocating vise, the moment he regained the moral high ground of an outgoing government that prevented for 1 year the collapse of the state in the midst of a pandemic thanks to the 37 billion left to the next government, at the same time he surrenders the weapons that kept him afloat. The «yes» of SYRIZA in Hellenic with the personal responsibility of its president and his executive team, is the symbolic and historical crossroads of the transformation of the. Perhaps even more historic than the events of 2015. That's because when you help to open the door wide to the gasification of a country, one thing is certain: there is no turning back.
SYRIZA abandons the Left: both the anti-narrative of the powerful state that does not dispense key development tools to deliver their benefits to the many and the radical left's conception of development are being severely damaged. Casinotourism, the pseudo-enlargement Dubai type, the exclusion of citizens through the 20 km fence, the creation of a Latin American-style protected «zona», have never been the prerequisites of the area. Countries that chose to turn to this flimsy development strategy, such as Cyprus, sooner or later turned most of their territory into a non-dominant, non-state-controlled territory. Productive reconstruction, the healthy coexistence of the public and private sectors and other such slogans are simply going out the window.
Symbolic (and tragic) irony: SYRIZA is backing one of the biggest privatisations in modern Greek history, while it is screaming about the abandonment of a crucial public sector, that of Health. At the same time, I wonder, what message does the agreement send to the cession of national land, at a time when Turkish imperialism is occupying the territory it occupied in Evros and is preparing to claim what it failed to get in 1923 with the Treaty of Lausanne? The message sent out by a left-wing patriotic force in defence of national territorial sovereignty cannot be one at home and another abroad.
SYRIZA turns the centre-left enlargement into a centre-right one: the theorem that by selling off the Hellenic site on the terms set by the Southwest will tie even more strongly to the party's chariot those who come from PASOK, does not stand up to even the most simplistic criticism.
What is the need of a former PASOK member from Thessaloniki, Achaia, Ilia, Heraklion, Aitoloakarnania to see Elliniko become a Las Vegas; What anti-right-wing, progressive, democratic instinct is satisfied by an agreement in the measures of the hardest right-wing government of the post-communist era and of the Metsotakian doctrine? Tsipras, Spirtzis, Tzanakopoulos, Pappas and Ragousis know that the flow from PASOK is reaching its limits, if not already complete. Apparently, they estimate that to get back into government they need something more: a piece of the moderate right's pie. And they are willing to unmake the basic ideological edifice of Syriza to do so.
SYRIZA separates its members and organisations: from the cutting of the railings at Elliniko and the liberation of the seafront from the nightlife mafias, to the opposition statements about «not selling Elliniko», SYRIZA based its strength on its people and the municipal or local collectives where they participated. Romantic and nostalgic thoughts one might say. Not at all.
By voting for the bill, Tsipras leaves hundreds of frontline members and executives exposed (i.e. part of its hard electoral apparatus) who will find it difficult to reappear in local communities. Unless these individuals believe or have received assurances that for their local demobilization, they will receive corresponding intra-party rewards. Even so, elections may be won again. But trust, which is the most essential element of political representation, I doubt it.
SYRIZA ends the ecology case: this point does not require any particular analysis. Only if one thinks about what skyscrapers, casinos, private beach fronts mean, can one understand the increase in the concentration of seasonal and nautical traffic within an urban enclave. And of course, here we are not talking mainly about the average citizen's family car (who will need another mall after the economic Armageddon of the pandemic?) but about more beastly vehicles, private buses carrying gamblers from all over the Balkans, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arab countries, yachts, boats of all kinds, whose traffic I don't know how exactly a state that looks at everything it has built with its face squeezed between the bars of the fence will control. Further, Hellenic will be decisive in terms of the country's tourism model, which until now has been based on quality hospitality services near the nature of the whole territory.
It is expected to become the cell of the spread of casino tourism with all its accompanying characteristics: direct connection between the airport and the casino village, all inclusive exclusive services, claiming a piece of the tourist pie from the historic centre of Athens, the province and the islands as well as altering the aesthetic content of the tourist message that the country sends out internationally. Tackling climate change, and in a sprawling metropolis of 5 million people becomes an empty communication format. If not a figure of deception.
I close on a personal note: I have been involved in the processes of the area for 18 years, having matured politically through its struggles. I too, like so many other fellow travellers, surrendered to the endless internal monologues after the humiliation of 2015, trying not to give in to the heavy political mourning. In my heart, I succeeded. Saving hundreds of thousands of migrant lives in the Aegean when the right was calling for dead, the exit from the memoranda, the 37billion, the strategic active participation in the anti-fascist front, offered me hope again. Hope was dashed with a thud when I saw only one of the 86 SYRIZA MPs clearly declaring its opposition to this pivotal change of course. Crucial not only for the Greek Left - that is the least - but above all for democracy, popular and state sovereignty.
By Vangelis Gettos
