Greece’s major opposition party the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRZA) on July 10 began a five-day conference hoping to unify its diversified base and find common ground against the government of Prime Minister and New Democracy Conservative party leader Antonis Samaras and his pro-austerity coalition partner, the PASOK Socialists.
The conference began with the formal dissolution of SYRIZA’s largest and most important faction, Synaspismos despite some dissent from opponents who felt the move was premature, particularly the Left Wave.
SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras will be faced with many challenges and will have to convince the leaders of the individual factions that compose SYRIZA in its present form that he is able to lead the party in the next parliamentary elections scheduled for 2016, unless the government unravels before then and early elections are held.
Many within SYRIZA said feel that the clash between opposing factions will end if they can reach a compromise and be allowed the necessary time to adjust to the new circumstances and a degree of autonomy within the new, unified party. The young Tsipras, 38, is appealing to Manolis Glezos, 90, a World War II hero, to bring together the Left from different generations.
Tsipras was expected to cultivate the impression of a “new regime change” and set himself further apart from New Democracy, which has expressed its intention to “get rid of the Left’s ideological hegemony.”
It may be difficult for Tsipras, an unexciting speaker, to galvanize the disparate forces within the party and whether he wants to also reach out to the disaffected Democratic Left (DIMAR) that quit Samaras’ previous coalition over its objections to his closing of the national broadcaster ERT and the firing of all its 2,656 workers.
The conference will elect a new Secretariat and Central Committee. The likeliest scenario is that Dimitris Vitsas will be nominated as coordinator and that Panos Skourletis will retain his position as party spokesman after the conference.
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