SYRIZA struggles to win over the centre-left

If one were to sum up the objectives of yesterday’s cabinet reshuffle, one could say that the prime minister sought to burnish the government’s “left-wing profile”, “social face”, and “systemic orientation”.

In fact, the left-wing profile concerns only the narrow party base, the rhetoric of pro-government media, and party secretary Panos Skourletis’ efforts to rally the party ahead of the next general election.

The government’s social policy will depend largely on its “systemic orientation” and the good will of creditors.

That is what will determine whether it is able to proceed, as it would like, with a hike in the minimum wage, and with a postponement of pension cuts as of 1 January, 2019, which have been passed into law on the demand of creditors.

Depending on the kindness of creditors

Although the government declares that the country has exited the bailout memorandum and is regaining control of policy, as it is meeting targets, in fact it depends greatly on the “good will” and “kindness” of creditors.

The quarterly fiscal review will continue to play a weighty role, and will determine in large measure the prospect of a postponement of pension cuts, which is a top priority for the government.

SYRIZA’s leadership is not concerned with the view of traditional left- wing parties that a shift to the Right will result in electoral losses on the Left, or with the traditional charges of selling out principles and values.

Dipping into the former PASOK base, again

Naturally, SYRIZA cadres do not forget that the party benefited hugely from the electoral and political collapse of PASOK, already by 2012.

That marks the beginning of a constant effort to shore up the support of both the left-wing of the political spectrum and the centre-left.

That also partly explains the similarity, which has often been noted, in the rhetorical tone and delivery of Alexis Tsipras’ speeches and those of PASOK founder Andreas Papandreou.

At least since it rose to power in 2015, SYRIZA has attempted to penetrate the centre-left part of the political spectrum, with the aim of restoring a system with a two-party, SYRIZA-New Democracy hegemony, in the image of the erstwhile political hegemony of Pasok and New Democracy.

After all, SYRIZA’s political programme has adopted privatisation and fiscal discipline, along with keeping wages low in the name of competitiveness, and is simply pursuing a social security net for the lowest economic brackets.

Effectively, SYRIZA is now very close to the core of European Social Democracy, or even the post-social democratic views of French President Emmanuel Macron.

With the splintering of the centre-left and the prospects of political collaboration extremely limited, SYRIZA hopes to again win over the large pool of disgruntled voters from that part of the political spectrum.