Leftist Party’s Rise Upends Greek Political Order
Published: May 11, 2012
(Page 2 of 2)
Mr. Xydakis said: “He doesn’t want to destroy capitalism. I think that he is much more pragmatic, and he feels now that he has some power, he must give to the suffering people some reforms to make their lives better.”
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With dark good looks and a charisma that some liken to that of Andreas Papandreou, the founder of Pasok and a wildly popular former prime minister, Mr. Tsipras ran a disciplined campaign in which Syriza was present in all forms of grass-roots protest movements.
At an energetic Syriza rally here last week before the elections, Vasso Kalfopoulou, 53, an art gallery owner, said she was voting for Syriza “because they are the only clean party” in a system she and many others see as corrupt.
But some say that for a reformer, Mr. Tsipras has shown few practical proposals and little interest in making structural changes to Greece’s dysfunctional public administration.
Critics say the party is immature and question whether Mr. Tsipras has the gravitas or the stamina to govern. “He has never been tested in actually making decisions that have to do with the future of the country; he was just protesting all the previous decisions,” Mr. Mandravelis said.
Those who know him disagree. “There is no doubt that he can govern because not only is he adequate, but he has also done his homework,” said Christophoros Kasdaglis, a Syriza supporter and the author of numerous books on the Greek left. “He has complete control over his party’s policies.” But Mr. Kasdaglis acknowledged that the party was struggling with an identity conflict, being both “Eurocentric and in conflict with Europe.”
Syriza members are trying to shift the debate. A Europe that imposes austerity on citizens while protecting banks “isn’t the Europe that the original inspirators of Europe imagined,” said Euclid Tsakalotos, an economics professor at the University of Athens who was just elected to Parliament with Syriza. “We’re demanding a more democratic, a more social and a more just Europe.”
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