The discussion around Alexis Tsipras’ new parties tends to be approached from the perspective of how it will shake up the center-right. The real question, however, is whether it expresses society’s desire for a deeper shift in its collective aspirations, following the end of the long cycle that began with the Metapolitefsi, the restoration of democracy after the 1967-1974 military dictatorship.
The decade-long crisis of 2010 didn’t just shatter political parties, convictions and social contracts. Post-Metapolitefsi Greece was organized along a linear understanding of time: democratization, European unification, growth and convergence with the West. For successive generations, this narrative fueled their political confrontations, societal demands and expectations with meaning. And the rise of the left-wing SYRIZA party was, oddly enough, the last major political mobilization prompted by this narrative – even though it initially seemed to negate it. The 2015 Grexit referendum encapsulated a much deeper contradiction within Greek society: the simultaneous desires for rupture and continuity, for dignity and European integration, for reaction and normalcy. The outcome of that clash also signaled the end of a historical expectation.
