Why did the Greek left fail in government in 2015? (pt. 2) SYRIZA responded to its rising popularity

We’re back with another installment of Boyan Stanislavski and Pat Byrne’s “Divided We Fall” series, in which they discuss the contemporary left’s problems and why it keeps losing on almost every front. What is the left’s problem, and why is it so?
Today, we’ll look at a major failure of the European left that occurred six years ago in Greece. In three parts, we look at how SYRIZA, led by Alexis Tsipras at the time, failed to deliver on basic promises that had earned them widespread support and a large majority in parliament.
For Europe’s left, 2015 appeared to be a breath of fresh air. After years of austerity, a chance for a consistent leftist party to take power has emerged. The entire left’s gaze was fixed on Greece, where the SYRIZA party and its leader, Alexis Tsipras, were on their way to assuming power and confronting the so-called Troika (IMF, ECB, and European Commission), which was strangling the country’s economy and demanding shock therapy and draconian austerity. There were high expectations! Those hopes were, unfortunately, dashed.
SYRIZA’s leadership gave in to the demands of European and international banks in a matter of weeks. The big dream of the European left had come to an end.
What occurred, and why did it occur? What were the factors that led to such a humiliating defeat? What are the lessons to be learned by the left from these events?
The first of three parts of our discussion of Greece and SYRIZA contains all of this and more. It can be seen here: https://bit.ly/3rWLRqs
Today, we’ll look at how SYRIZA and the Greek left as a whole reacted to the party’s growing popularity.

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