Four Institutes Lead Effort to Unite Progressive Parties to Challenge Greek Government
Four progressive institutes have been collaborating for months to unify the fractured center-left in Greece and work toward a common political platform that could provide a credible alternative to the current government.
INERPOST, the ENA Institute, the Initiative for the Progressive Alternative Governance Program, and the Alexis Tsipras Institute, have taken the lead in synthesizing party programs and policy proposals, aiming to respond collectively to growing public disillusionment and the latest political scandals shaking the New Democracy party under the leadership of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
This initiative was brought to the forefront by former Finance Minister Louka Katseli, who has called on center-left parties to combine their efforts to change Greek politics and topple the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Katseli is best known for the so-called Katseli Law, one of the very few pieces of legislation in Greece to bear the name of a politician. Enacted during the financial crisis, the law provided critical protections for over-indebted households, including safeguards against foreclosures on primary residences.
The New Democracy administration has been rocked by a series of scandals, including the illegal surveillance of journalists and political opponents using Predator spyware, the deadly Tempi railway disaster that exposed critical failures in public safety infrastructure, and most recently, the fraudulent allocation of subsidies to ghost farms and politically connected individuals unrelated to agriculture.
Recently, a minister and four high officials were forced to resign over the scandal. Furthermore, it has been implicated that Mitsotakis knew about the wrongdoings of his party members. Opposition parties are demanding the current Greek PM’s resignation and calling for snap elections.
However, opinion polls show that center-right New Democracy continues to lead by a two-digit difference from the second party (PASOK) on intention to vote. Former main opposition Syriza has split into three parties, while PASOK is stalled in the lower two digits. The right-wing opposition parties remain in the low single digits.
While PM Mitsotakis shows no signs that he is willing to leave the top chair two years before the end of his term, center-left parties remain divided and seem unwilling to cooperate. At the same time, Greek voters have grown tired of hearing about scandals and mismanagement of governments over the last fifty years since the restoration of democracy. The belief that all politicians—left, right, and center—are essentially alike and only get involved in politics for their own financial benefit seems to be ingrained in the minds of voters.
A unified response against the Mitsotakis government
Katseli said there is an ongoing effort to gradually form a unified progressive response to the Mitsotakis government that will gain the trust of the majority of Greek citizens. Katseli began by emphasizing that the country needs a change of course through a government that:
- actively defends national interests;
- promotes an economic transformation and productive transformation so that a new financial crisis does not arise;
- promotes a social cohesion program, as gaps in equality continue to widen significantly;
- protects democratic institutions, as these have been undermined in recent years.
According to Katseli, these are the four pillars that need particular attention if there is to be change in Greek politics. These would speak to both progressive voters as well as those who traditionally belong to the center right. There must be hope that in the following elections there will be alternatives and people will be able to vote on the basis of an agenda of which they approve.
Katseli maintains that if change is expected, there must be an alternative political scene. At the moment, unfortunately, there is fragmentation of the progressive opposition, meaning that if Greek politics is not overhauled, a significant number of potential voters are likely to stay home in the next elections due to a crisis of confidence in the entire political system and existing parties, which, under the current circumstances, will be weakened even if they do enter Parliament.
Three scenarios that are difficult to implement
There are three foreseen challenges in such an endeavor, Katseli said. The first among these pertains to party leaders, who are unlikely to abandon their positions and party supporters to join an alliance. Secondly, if one party gains momentum, attracts additional members, and advances in polls, it is improbable that it would participate in an alliance to being with. Lastly, the formation of a new party could lead to attacks from all sides with accusations that this has led to greater fragmentation.
Due to such difficulties, Katseli has said that “there should be a grassroots movement that will call the parties together to cooperate. The parties themselves will take the responsibility, but the citizens will have choices. Can something like this happen? I think it can and this is something we are trying to do, at least I hope so, and that I will be able to contribute in this direction.”
Katseli has also said that considering the prevailing conditions, major international shocks, and geopolitical instability, the first thing that needs to be done is to establish a program basis with which a large part of the progressive opposition can agree.
Four institutes already working
Katseli reported that the four institutions that have taken part in the initiative for the founding of an alliance are:
- INERPOST (Institute for Research & Political Strategy);
- ENA (Institute for Alternative Policies);
- the Alexis Tsipras Institute;
- and the Initiative for the Progressive Alternative Governance Program.
This is in progress, she said, so that based on the existing programs of the parties, there is a synthesis of specific interventions. This is so that if people are going to vote for something different, they will at least know specific interventions, with specialized priorities, so that they can consider that something can be done to change the bad things in Greek politics.
A number of experts are mobilized on each issue, e.g. for productive transformation, the changes that need to be made to the justice system, to local government and how it will contribute to productive transformation. As a coordinating group of the four institutes, we have come up with 20 interventions, which will be specialized and will begin to be made public from the end of September onwards, so that the parties can come under a common umbrella, which is what we seek.
There is a coordinating group that has divided the work between the four institutes. Each institute is working on issues with a common table of contents depending on the work it has done so far. Regarding INERPOST, we have focused on the financial and productive transformation, the results of this processing and an open dialogue will be presented from the end of September onwards.
Differences between the parties
The differences between the parties are focused on a couple of key points and are therefore manageable. “I am not afraid that differences will also emerge, e.g. in defense spending or energy policy. I consider the programmatic divergences to be completely manageable,” Katseli said.
“The main thing was to start the work, to have this processing, so that there is a programmatic basis, which I think everyone needs first in order to collaborate in something that is broader and is factional and not narrowly partisan.”
A second equally important issue, she continued, is to break this atmosphere of defeatism, the notion that nothing can be done, This is the worst thing for democracy. “The solution for me and forgive me but I am a bit romantic about this, is that if you do not fight it, the worst is ahead of you.”
Katseli referred to the need for an alternative plan, if this co-existence is not possible and all parties end up “fishing” from the same pool of voters, instead of forming a strong ballot with the prospect of victory.
This is the fourth scenario, in addition to the three mentioned above, which I consider to have little chance of success. It presupposes the first section, the programmatic basis, as well as the second section, for corresponding initiatives in each large city to raise public awareness, the mobilization of local communities around initiatives taken by associations, initiatives by citizens of Patras, Heraklion, Thessaloniki, etc. for an alternative progressive government that organizes a series of events, speeches, discussions with the public and the local community, about what can be done under the current circumstances.
Formation of the ballot
The third important thing is the formation of the ballot, the alignment of the forces of the broader faction. This could be done in a bold, difficult but effective way, if the parties cannot come in terms with each other. There should be an initiative by 10-20 prestigious people, who will commit that they themselves have no electoral aspirations, famous people who have given examples of written proposals, are reliable and have contributed to the country each from their own area, from social organizations, from the universities, in their professional field, etc.
They will be the coordinating consultation group, with responsibility for the formation of the final ballot for the broader faction. They will call on all the parties to collaborate and cooperate on this “platform”, let’s call it that since it does not have a name yet. There should be three commitments:
Consensus on the programmatic basis that has been drawn.
No candidacy in the elections with contribution from MPs to the platform.
Cooperation and compliance while maintaining the independence and entity of each party.
Katseli clarified, there will be a quota for the parties and a search for prominent people from the wider society to renew the political staff.
Responding to a question whether these personalities could include Alexis Tsipras, Katseli replied “No, it should not be in my opinion. There should not be any prominent party people”.
Regarding who will lead this project, she replied, characteristically “Let’s not put the cart before the horse. It is an issue that will be raised in a reasonable period of time, and the candidate for leader in this effort will also emerge.”
“It’s not only us in the center-left who care about our country. There are too many of our fellow citizens who are extremely dissatisfied with the center-right, we want alternatives. There are too many people who have “gone home” and they don’t care about Greek politics. This country needs role models and I hope that we can become better. If we can contribute even a little in this direction, we will have left something behind.”
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