SYRIZA: 30 difficult days until the polls – The new narrative and Tsipras’ wagers

Yesterday’s address by SYRIZA president Alexis Tsipras to the party’s Central Committee contained strong doses of self-criticism as well as the first samples of how he will move in the 30 days remaining until the new election battle.

The president of SYRIZA once again took full responsibility for the defeat, he tried to unfold the new narrative in view of the second round of elections while he did not hesitate to point out that the party does not go to the new polls to lose but to win.

“In the race of June 25, I invite you not to go to lose, to keep our percentages, but to claim every vote and face the Right. To win and not to lose,” he emphasized.

Alexis Tsipras, after admitting a series of strategic mistakes made during the pre-election period, gave the signal to change the page and counter-attack, characteristically noting that SYRIZA is and will remain a party of power.

The mistakes that led to the painful defeat

After the initial shock of the election result, in Koumoundourou they calmly begin to analyze the causes of the defeat.

The president of SYRIZA yesterday referred in his speech to the reasons why SYRIZA reached 20% from 31% in the previous national elections.

He admitted that New Democracy managed to impose its own agenda, the agenda of fear as he said, as a result of which it did not discuss today’s problems – a looting state, eavesdropping, health, education.

The second reason, as he said, was the forced choice to defend a strategy that, due to the refusal of the other progressive forces, could not take root: the strategy of simple proportionality and the formation of a government of progressive cooperation.

Mr. Tsipras underlined that the election result was a strategic defeat of simple proportionality and “simultaneous defeat of our strategy for simple proportionality”.

And this – as he said – helped New Democracy unimaginably to consolidate its own agenda. In fact, he did not hesitate to once again take a stab at the rest of the opposition parties, noting that the “continuous refusal of the progressive forces gave the image of an unrealistic and therefore unreliable government proposal”.

In the third reason for the defeat, Mr. Tsipras spoke about the image of the party. The mistakes made but also what needs to change.

He spoke about the image of the party, as a collective subject, for a long time, but giving particular weight to what happened in the critical days before the ballot box.

As he said, it was not an image that radiated cohesion, responsibility, organization. He spoke of “wrong public positions, even in the last days before the elections, the backbiting, the lack of responsibility, even understanding how suspicious the electorate was towards us, how fluid and changeable, cost us dearly.

And this puts before all of us a very critical and urgent issue”.

Next steps and “thorns”

In SYRIZA, the primary goal is to be able to communicate to the world, and especially to the disaffected voters of the party, the new strategy for the polls that will be held on June 25.

They also want to safeguard that the party will march with unity, away from any kind of introversion and internal party “barbs” about the causes of defeat.

“We have to change. Drastically. Radically. Immediately. With calmness, collectivity, political culture. But let’s change. And this is not a question of political direction.

Neither to the center nor to the left to change. But towards seriousness, responsibility, collectiveness” was the clear message sent yesterday by Alexis Tsipras.

In fact, the president of SYRIZA asked everyone to organize their presence in the new election in a coordinated manner from today.

“Let’s come to an election campaign that will take into account the new data. And to guarantee at the same time with our attitude, deed and word our own change and renewal.
That we have received the message and are actually correcting our failures and mistakes.”