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Boyan Stanislavski
- Citizens Movements
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We’re back with another edition of Boyan Stanislavski and Pat Byrne’s “Divided We Fall” series, in which they explore the weaknesses of the modern left and why it continues to lose on practically every front. What is the problem with the left, and why is it so?
Today, we’ll look at a big failure of the European left in Greece six years ago. We look at how SYRIZA, led at the time by Alexis Tsipras, failed to deliver on basic promises that had garnered them popular support and a huge majority in parliament in three sections.
2015 appeared to be a breath of fresh air for Europe’s left. After years of austerity, there is now an opportunity for a solid socialist party to take power. The attention of the entire left was focused 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 a lot of expectations! Unfortunately, such dreams were crushed.
In a matter of weeks, SYRIZA’s leadership caved in to the demands of European and international banks. The European left’s grandiose ambition has come to an end.
What happened, and why did it happen? What circumstances contributed to such a terrible defeat? What are the lessons for the left to take away from these events?
This is the final episode of our three parts discussion on the rise and fall of SYRIZA.
Part one: https://bit.ly/35xEEFM
Part two: https://bit.ly/3o7tYEc
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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