With most left wing parties taking a “voluntary buyout” from the political struggle, and tying themselves to Alexis Tsipras’ new wagon, our political system is becoming even more personality based. Only New Democracy and PASOK – and, in its own way, the Communist Party – remain engines of collective action.
But even the two once mighty parties are closely identified with their leaders and are influenced by personal disputes. And so, we identify parties by the surnames of their leaders: Tsipras, Karystianou, Velopoulos, Konstantopoulou, Varoufakis and Latinopoulou, while we talk of Mitsotakis’ New Democracy and (Nikos) Androulakis’ PASOK. The more our political scene is fragmented, the greater the role played by those who constitute it. This does not mean that political solutions are generated, but neither does it rule it out.
Let’s keep in mind that New Democracy and PASOK were the creations of Konstantinos Karamanlis and Andreas Papandreou, respectively, when democracy was restored after the fall of the junta. Although different political personalities were united under one flag, the new formations remained “extensions” of their powerful chairmen. However, both parties survived because the different factions within them were able to unite at critical moments and show the necessary flexibility to overcome difficulties.
