Sometimes I’m asked why as an anarchist I don’t support parties of the left that believe in social justice, making life better for the working class, and protecting the environment and animals. My answer is usually that whatever good intentions politicians have while in opposition, when in power they renege on their promises.
After all didn’t Tony Blair first get elected to Parliament in 1983 on a left wing manifesto that advocated nationalisation, unilateral nuclear disarmament and withdrawal from the EEC?
But I have to admit that even I’m surprised by what’s happened in Greece. A party that claims to be of the far left and also has greens amongst its ranks wins the most seats in the general election and then within a couple of hours enters into a coalition with Greek equivalent of UKIP or even worse. Is this the fastest sell out in history?
So, given that they won a plurality (rather than a majority), and the decisive election issue was the bailout, whom do you think they should have chosen as a coalition partner? And if those negotiations didn’t work out, who should the second choice have been?
Obviously you’re going to be in coalition with someone you *disagree* with. If you agreed with them, you’d be in the same party. (Occasionally, the results let natural bedfellows work together – like the LibDem/Lab coalition that initially ran Scotland – but there’s not generally an obvious coalition like that.)
BTW, I agree the “Independent Greeks” are akin to UKIP, but they’re not the far-right party of Greek politics the way UKIP is here. Golden Dawn came third.