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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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Moderate, pragmatic and unloved: Greece's liberal parties
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| Parent(s) |
Race
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| Contributor | 411 Name Removed |
| Last Edited | 411 Name Removed May 15, 2012 10:02am |
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| Category | Profile |
| Author | Harry van Versendaal |
| Media | Newspaper - Kathimerini |
| News Date | Tuesday, May 15, 2012 04:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | “In Greece, a liberal is called a 'neoliberal' and is perceived as a 'neoconservative',” says Constantinos Alexacos, an architect who ran as a candidate with the Drasi party in the May 6 elections.
Big shocks change perceptions but the spectacular meltdown of Greece’s two-party system, dominant since the end of the military dictatorship in 1974, has failed to shake off at least one: mainstream distrust in liberalism.
Socialist PASOK and the New Democracy conservatives suffered a drubbing on Sunday, seeing their combined share of the vote sink to an all-time low of 32 percent. Nevertheless, none of the country’s liberal parties -- Democratic Alliance, Drasi (which merged with Liberal Alliance ahead of the vote), or Dimiourgia Xana (Recreate Greece) -- won enough votes to make it into Parliament. The three garnered a combined 6.5 percent, or 411,536 votes, as a huge chunk of support went to the anti-bailout parties away from the center of the political spectrum.
The poor showing has prompted a fair deal of frustration and soul-searching among self-described liberals in this debt-wracked nation. If there is one thing they all agree on it's that their doctrine is a perennial victim of bad publicity. For a wide range of reasons, liberalism is still a dirty word for many, particularly those on the left.
“Like capitalism, liberal ideologies in Greece have been defined by their opponents, not their supporters. We’ve allowed others to tell the Greek population what we are, what we believe, who we are aligned with,” says Emmanuel Schizas, editor of the LOL Greece blog. |
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