There’s a lot happening on Greece’s political stage right now, and it’s all getting its fair share of commentary. We’re witnessing the second coming of Alexis Tsipras, Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ resilience, Nikos Androulakis’ weakness and all the departures from Maria Karystianou’s new party.
The last development is odd. Not because certain members – we can’t call them officials because the party has no real organizational structure – are already jumping ship, but because they got on board in the first place.
Now they’re complaining that the party doesn’t have a clear platform. What did they expect? The Communist Manifesto? They’re claiming that the party belongs to certain specific people. They had hoped, they say, that it would not be governed by factions and cronies. They seem to be forgetting that the entire party was structured around a single person, that everyone has likes and dislikes and that when a party is centered on its leader, these preferences shape it. They do not have the objectivity of impersonal processes, which yield the best possible outcomes and – most importantly – everyone’s consensus. In personality-driven parties, everything becomes personal.
Karystianou’s entry into the public sphere began with the 2023 Tempe rail tragedy and the loss of her daughter. It was an event that resonated with everyone in this country, who knew that it could have been their child on that fateful journey, and it exposed the deficiencies in the administration of justice in Greece. Violations of protocols in managing the crash site stoked public sentiment even further.
