NAR: On the European Parliament Elections results

NAR for the Communist Liberation on the European Parliament Elections results

The general result at pan-European level reflects the crisis of the European Union with the retreat of the main parties that are pillars of its political structure (European People's Party, Social Democrats, Liberals). The rise of the far right is a common element of the rearrangement of the balance of power in all EU countries along a line of 'EU of Nations'.The forces of the left (with some exceptions) are retreating, invalidated by the context of "alternative governmental solutions" with the Social Democrats and by the refusal or the inability to oppose the European Union, despite the fact that there is a sharp increase in popular discontent against it. Even more particularly today with the greater involvement of the EU in the war in Ukraine and its complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people. The general picture is also marked by the glaring absence of a subversive, anti-capitalist and communist left that expresses the interests of the social majority with a policy of conflict and rupture with the barbaric system and the EU.

The abstention in the European elections in Greece (60% this year, 41% in 2019 and 2014) is a factor that is not specific to Greece, nor only to the European elections. It reflects deeper processes related to the growing distance of the popular strata from the institutions of bourgeois politics. In a context of growing public awareness the vote does not predominantly determine the policy pursued, the privilege of which is rests with the bourgeois centres of power. It incorporates contradictory and/or opposing tendencies within it, while revealing that the bourgeois political system is not easily persuaded through the ballot box. It has, however, strengthened other mechanisms for securing tolerance, enforcement and consensus.

The right-wing New Democracy party received a slap! With 28.31% and 1,125,602 votes, it drops 12.2% from June last year and loses almost a million votes (from 2,115,322). In fact, in May 2023 it had received 2,407,750 votes (40.79%). Seeing the downward slide coming, Prime Minister Mitsotakis had set the bar very low, setting as a target the 2019 European elections (33.12%, 1,873,137 votes) result. Of course, this is not right because the distance to 2019 is long, in a politically dense period. The comparison should be made with the 2023 parliamentary elections, taking into account the different characteristics of the ballot box of the European elections. However, even compared to the 2019 European elections, ND faced a drop, receiving 5% below the target set by Mitsotakis. The government and ND a great condemnation. The process of wearing down the government and weakening it, socially and politically, has begun. This fall is even more significant as it is taking place in the absence of a substantial opposition on the part of SYRIZA and PASOK (Social Democrats) and is more related to the social and political resistance of the labour and youth movement, but also to the development of the social and political protest of broader popular strata with a different political orientation within themselves.

SYRIZA failed to reach the target of being close to or above the 17.8% of the June parliamentary elections, and was at a low of less than 15% (14.92%) and with a loss of more than 330,000 votes compared to June 2023. Also, the narrow margin over PASOK does not clarify the "local derby" of hegemony on the centre-left. PASOK with 12.79% (508,399 votes) made a small step up in percentage from 11.84% (617,487 votes), but clearly below expectations and the goal of coming second, and here too there was a significant loss of votes. This year's European elections are one of those rare cases where there was a double condemnation and failure of both the government and the opposition, showing the cracks in the party system.

The registration of far-right, nationalist and conservative lists is upward, significant and multiply alarming, with the nationalist Hellenic Solution reaching 9.3%, the religious party Niki 4.37%, the neoliberal-neofascist "Voice of Reason" 3.04% (they elect two, one and one MEP respectively), while in total the 12 far-right electoral lists approached 20.5%, compared to 13.9% in the parliamentary elections of June 2023 and 15.7% in the European elections of 2019. There are business interests behind these choices, as in some specific cases there was plenty of money for publicity. The increased rates of the far-right are predominantly related to the shift of the axis of the political debate to the right secured by the New Democracy and the EU institutions with their rhetoric and policies (immigration, law and order, security issues, Islamophobia, "national threats" etc.), but unfortunately also by forces on the left. The rise of the far right is one more proof of the inability of the systemic 'democratic fronts' of the bourgeois powers to deal with it. The modern far-right can only really be countered by a new workers' movement with a strong element of anti-fascist struggle within it and a modern communist left. It is thus demonstrated, electorally, that the EU is a hotbed of racist policies, an anti-democratic authoritarian fortress and an anti-communist apparatus, a staff of repression of peoples and movements.

The KKE Communist Party reached 9.25% with 367,796 votes, an increase in terms of vote share compared to last year's parliamentary elections (7.69% in June and 7.23% in May), but a decrease in the absolute number of votes, compared to the 401,224 in June and 426,628 in May. The reduced turnout did not leave the KKE unaffected, but its greater concentration of voters (compared to the other parties) and its mobilization capacity gave it increased potential. The electoral influence of the KKE is particularly strong in urban centers, especially in Athens, and more so in the more working-class neighborhoods. The KKE is mainly strengthened by the left-wing protest and resistance vote. However, recently there has been a significant adjustment of its policy, with a smoothing of specific subversive and anti-EU spikes and a strengthening of the parliamentary and 'patriotic' reference, while there was also pre-election support from conservative sides, such as from the former parliamentary representative of the nationalist party ANEL and MEP, Notis Marias, whose then new nationalist party had received 1.24% and 70.347 votes in the 2019 European elections.

The result of MERA25 (2.54%) and New Left (2.45%), and their failure to achieve the goal of representation in the European Parliament, records the crisis of the new social democracy in Greece as a whole and the impasse of "fronts" formed on the basis of governmentalism or parliamentary representation with the absence of left-wing political and class reference and the exclusion of even the basic and needed elements of rupture. A heavy failure in the first electoral registration for the New Left, splitting from SYRIZA, which with 2.45% and 97,554 votes did not manage to elect an MEP, despite the fact that it has 11 MPs with plenty of state funds and access to mainstream media. Similarly, the MERA25 (DiEM25) alliance, with 2.54% and 101,127 votes, remained at the same percentage level as in last year's parliamentary elections (2.5% and 130,378 votes in June, 2.63% and 155,107 votes in May), despite the effort to gain wider support. Smoothing out even those “anti-establishment” references that existed last May led to a new failure.

The “Course of Freedom”, a personalized party of former SYRIZA minister Zoe Konstantopoulou, self-proclaimed as "neither right nor left" with 3.40% and 135.310 votes elects an MEP.

Finally, the "Green parties" remained at a low level in this election as well, as it more reflects the capitalist "green growth" of the EU. It is no coincidence that the strongest registration was from the party "Cosmos" of businessman Petros Kokkalis, with 1.08%.

ANTARSYA got 20,603 votes and 0.52%, compared to 0.30% and 15,887 votes in June 2023 and 0.54% and 31,759 votes in May 2023. Tendencies - potentials of rise are detected, which were also shown by the vote share in Athens (1%) and especially in working-class municipalities. However, the result of the anti-capitalist left is incommensurate with the challenges and demands and the demand for reconstruction is urgent. ANTARSYA and NAR fought the election from positions of anti-capitalist program and projection of the need for indiscipline, rupture and exit from the European Union. They tried to raise substantive political questions and positions on the big and pressing problems of the workers and the youth, particularly singling out the question of resistance to war hysteria. In adverse conditions determined by the way the elections were conducted and the dominant political agenda, the comrades of NAR and ANTARSYA fought a remarkable battle. Its electoral result expresses the insistence of a pioneering section of the social struggles and the anti-capitalist and communist left in Greek society. It underlines the need for an anti-capitalist and revolutionary, modern and mass front, capable of creating ruptures in bourgeois politics and changing today's negative social and political correlations. The result also records electorally the absence of a revolutionary and modern communist left that our era needs, capable of influencing social and political reality in mass terms.

The NAR and Youth Communist Liberation have pointed out with the decisions of the 5th NAR Congress the qualitative steps needed to build this left and will work with greater determination towards this direction in the coming period, while at the same time striving for a higher formation of the forces of communism in Greece and internationally.

NAR for the Communist Liberation

Athens, 11.6.2024