Греческий "Сυνασπισμός": История партии левых сил

The Coalition of the Left, of Movements and Ecology (Συνασπισμός της Αριστεράς των Κινημάτων και της Οικολογίας, Synaspismós tīs Aristerás tōn Kinīmátōn kai tīs Oikologías), commonly known as Synaspismos (Συνασπισμός, Synaspismós, "Coalition") and abbreviated to SYN (ΣΥΝ), was a Greek political party of the radical New Left. It was founded in 1991 and was known as the Coalition of the Left and Progress (Συνασπισμός της Αριστεράς και της Προόδου, Synaspismós tīs Aristerás kai tīs Proódou) until 2003. In 2004 SYN was a founding member of the Party of the European Left. SYN was the largest party of the left wing coalition formed in 2004 called Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA). SYN was dissolved in 2013.

Synaspismos emerged initially as an electoral coalition at the late 1980s, with the pro Soviet Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Greek Left, one of the successors of the eurocommunist KKE Interior, as its largest constituents. The Party of Democratic Socialism, a splinter from the Union of the Democratic Centre which occupied a similar position to PASOK, was the largest non Communist member party. The disintegration of the USSR brought the Left into disunion, and the traditional majority within KKE purged all non hardliners from the party—almost 45% of the Central Committee members, including ex general secretary Grigoris Farakos, and majorities in many Local Committees (named by the KKE majority as revisionists and by the press as the renewers). At this time KKE also left the coalition.

After that, the other parties of the coalition and the renewing part of KKE decided to convert the alliance into a political party (1991). Although the 'experiment' seemed to have great potential, serious ideological conflicts were afflicting the new party. At the legislative elections of 1993, SYN failed by 2,000 votes to pass the limit of 3% and enter the National Parliament. But next year, Synaspismos got its highest national 'score' ever (6.26%) in the 1994 European Parliament elections. Two years later, with 5.12%, got its highest score in 1996 legislative elections. In the legislative elections of 2000, SYN was supported by the small Renewing Communist Ecological Left (AKOA) party and a small group of ecologists. After the elections a few members of the National Committee, who were asking for approximation with the social democrats, left the party accusing the majority of neo communist turn and created the short lived party AEKA. AEKA was first split and little later disbanded in some months, when the head of the party became an Undersecretary in the socialdemocratic administration of Kostas Simitis. In the legislative elections of 2004, Synaspismos, together with several smaller parties (AKOA, Movement for the United in Action Left (KEDA), Internationalist Workers Left (DEA, Active Citizens)), formed an alliance called Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), but contested the Euro elections of the same year on its own, because of ideological disagreements within the party. The alliance with the smaller parties was formed again at the end of 2005, when chairman Alekos Alavanos proposed the 30 year old Alexis Tsipras as candidate mayor of Athens for the Municipal Election of 2006, proclaiming the party's "overture to a younger generation". The Tsipras candidacy was received well, especially so by younger voters, and formed the party's springboard for its good 2007 parliamentary elections showing. On 10 February 2008 Alexis Tsipras was elected party president, replacing Alavanos, who stepped down citing private reasons. At that time Tsipras did not hold a parliamentary seat, so Alavanos remained leader of the parliamentary group. After the legislative elections in 2009, Tsipras entered Parliament and became leader of the SYRIZA parliamentary group. The 6th Congress of Synaspismos took place in June 2010. The "renewing wing" led by Fotis Kouvelis, in disagreement with the party's participation in SYRIZA, left the party and founding Democratic Left. Fotis Kouvelis was followed by three more MPs, that left the party caucus. Both in the May 2012 Greek Legislative election and in the June 2012 Greek Legislative election, SYRIZA came second, electing 52 and 71 MPs, accordingly, of which 45 and 55 were part of Synaspismos. In July 2013, right before the first Congress of SYRIZA, the final congress of Synaspismos took place, that overwhelmingly voted to disestablish Synaspismos and to merge with SYRIZA.

Election Hellenic Parliament Rank Government Leader Votes % ±pp Seats won +/−As an electoral coalition1989 I855,94413.13%NewNew3rdCoalition cabinet of Tzannis TzannetakisCharilaos Florakis1989 II734,55210.97% 2.16 7Zolotas Ecumenical Government1990677,05910.28% 0.69 2 OppositionAs a party 1993 202,887 2.9% New ±0 No. 5 No seats Maria Damanaki 1996 347,236 5.1% 2.2 10 No. 4 Opposition Nikos Konstantopoulos 2000 219,880 3.2% 1.9 4 No. 4

European Parliament Election Votes % ±pp Seats won +/− Rank Leader 1994 408,072 6.2% New 2 No. 5 Nikos Konstantopoulos 1999 331,928 5.2% 1.0 ±0 No. 5 2004 254,447 4.2% 1.0 1 No. 4

SYN described itself as "a radical left party, inspired by the ideas of the renewal of the communist and broader left movement in Greece and in Europe. It also fights for the merging of the ecological movement along with the left, to form a strategic alliance. The party's culture has been enriched by its active participation in the movement against the Neoliberal Capitalist Globalization." Synaspismos aspired to be a "canopy party"; where, under the party flag, one could find people of varying ideological and theoretical backgrounds. Therefore, SYN members were encouraged to form, or participate in, intra party platforms on the basis of kinship in ideology. Platforms mounted open discussions and published magazines, but might not work against party consensus decisions. Note: the exact word used is "τάσεις" ("tendencies"), but the term platform is more fitting in English.

SYN's youth organisation was SYN Youth (Νεολαία ΣΥΝ, SYN Youth), which was autonomous from the party structure. Until the late 1990s they were called "Left Youth League" (Ένωση Αριστερών Νέων). N SYN had their own membership and executive bodies, but in general their decisions and activity were similar to the ones of the party. Their power was noteworthy in most Student Councils all around Greece, through the AR. EN. (Αριστερή Ενότητα, "Left Unity"). N SYN also participated in the European Network of Democratic Young Left (ENDYL).

No. Leader PortraitTerm of office 1 Charilaos Florakis 8 April 1989 18 March 1991 2 Maria Damanaki 18 March 1991 19 December 1993 3 Nikos Konstantopoulos 19 December 1993 12 December 2004 4 Alekos Alavanos 12 December 2004 11 February 2008 5 Alexis Tsipras 11 February 2008 10 July 2013