Where Greek politics stands today.
My 7 conclusions after the 10-day Greece-(North) Macedonia saga over name deal:
My 7 conclusions after the 10-day Greece-(North) Macedonia saga over name deal:
1. PM Tsipras increasingly employs personal (almost private-style) politics at the expense of his party, his coalition government and Greek parliament.
2. Greek Parliament is being reduced into a voting mechanism, nearly one half of which unanimously verifies ex post facto the leader's choices/acts while the other half is simply concerned with, and divided over, what opposition strategy is best for its parts to use.
3. Name-deal saga made quite clear that Greek society is split in at least two ways: (a) emotional vs. pragmatic voters and (b) populists vs. liberals. Divisions are deep, cross-cutting, and ever-shifting.
4. Underneath, there may be a third division - one between democrats vs. non-democrats. See rant of Golden Dawn MP Barbarousis (i.e., an open call for military to intervene in politics). For connoisseurs, also see cases of Frangoulis & P. Kammenos.
5. Right now, ND is the only party with working internal organization (and intra-party factions), a moderate policy agenda and a leadership committed to institutional legality.
6. Given the circumstances, the electoral space between SYRIZA on left and ANEL on right is like an active volcano and the voters situated there are like volcanic lava.
7. Most certainly, Greek voters combining commitment to parliamentary democracy, the liberal institutions and human rationality do *not* form an electoral majority.
