Greek crisis revitalises left-wing parties

Demonstrations in Greece this week have been a gesture of defiance against the new unity government and its austerity measures but also a show of strength for the left-wing parties who refused to sign up. The communists and radical leftist parties are enjoying a surge in the polls as they position themselves at the front of public anger against unpopular reforms demanded by Greece's foreign creditors, the EU and the IMF. An annual protest on Thursday marking a 1973 student uprising against the military junta was their first opportunity to mobilise against the new government of Lucas Papademos, and about 42,000 people turned out, according to police. Ahead of a confidence vote in the government on Wednesday, which passed with overwhelming support, Communist leader Aleka Papariga condemned the administration and said "the Greek people must literally rise up" against it. The appointment of Papademos, a former vice-president of the European Central Bank who was never elected, has been condemned by the left as undemocratic, while the partners in his coalition have also sparked outrage. The far-right, in the form of the small nationalist LAOS party, is back in power for the first time since the military dictatorship fell in 1974. According to a recent poll in the Kathimerini newspaper, the formation of the new government last week under pressure from the markets boosted the support for left-wing parties by about five percent on the previous month, to 30 percent. This includes the communist KKE party, which promotes Stalinist policies inherited from the Cold War and which was persecuted for decades, the radical Syriza party and a number of independent lawmakers who broke from Syriza. Pasok, the socialist party of former prime minister George Papandreou which now shares power in the coalition, it not viewed as left-wing in Greece, and many leftist supporters have long viewed it as a traitor to its name. Tempers flared between the groups on Wednesday when leftist students prevented youth members of Pasok from laying a wreath at the Athens Polytechnic ahead of Thursday's demonstration. This year, as in 2010, the march doubled as a protest against ongoing austerity measures which Papademos will continue. Many demonstrators were supporters of the KKE and Syriza, which have increasingly claimed the annual event as their own. Ilias Nikolakopoulos, a political analyst at the Opinion institute, said there was something "particularly Greek" about the rise of the left, unlike in Spain for example, where losses by the socialist bloc have benefited the right. During the last elections in Greece in October 2009, KKE and Syriza won 7.54 percent and 4.6 percent of the vote respectively, winning 21 and 13 lawmakers, although four defected from Syriza to become left-wing independents. "The new politics of austerity is changing the political landscape, with the collapse of Pasok" which is paying for its support for liberal policies, said Michalis Spourdalakis, professor of political science at Athens university. He said left-wing leaders were "led, rather than be bypassed" by popular movements of dissent such as the tens of thousands of Greeks who joined anti-capitalist protests this summer. The communist trade union Pame, which is linked to KKE and regularly brings out thousands of people onto the streets of Athens, has taken up the cause of opponents of a new property tax introduced under orders from Brussels. Syriza meanwhile has given political backing to civil disobedience groups who have reacted to the government's tax spree by refusing to pay train tickets and highway tolls. It's a classic political game," said Nikolakopoulos. "The left draws a clear line with the Pasok party so they can attract disgruntled socialist voters" ahead of elections tentatively scheduled for early next year, he said.