Editorial: Maturation

In the two-and-a-half years that SYRIZA has been the main opposition party, it has not offered indications of institutional and political maturation.

Although it has governed and has experience with public administration and the state. It presumed that with a repetition of its enraged rhetoric of 2010-2015, it could ineluctably become the alternative (to ruling New Democracy) pole in the parliamentary system and that it is in effect a government-in-waiting.

The times, however, have changed.

People want answers, persuasive plans, and arguments that will take into account the institutional structure of the Third Hellenic Republic. It is no coincidence that the polls reflects this, as well as a dislike for verbalism.

To a large extent, the dysfunction and acrobatics of SYRIZA is due to the party’s being out of touch with the contemporary needs of Greek society. It often seems entrenched in skirmishes between closed groups and factions that are reminiscent of a bygone era.

Hence, one should see in a positive light SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras’ recent initiatives to bring a new era in his party’s part of the political spectrum with an open process that has been successfully tested by other parties, even if reservations are attached to those initiatives, and always on condition that in the end they will lead to the creation of a democratic party that will contribute to the political terrain and offer answers instead of hostility and revanchism.

This must be accompanied by a new organisational operation and a new programme. It would be foolish in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution of new technologies for one to believe that one is at the start of the 20th century.