Greece’s ruling New Democracy party (European People’s Party – EPP) could be open to collaboration with the “Greek Solution”, a far-right party known for its pro-Russian stance.
Speaking to ANT1 news channel, Minister of Domestic Affairs Makis Voridis stated, “I don’t exclude anyone. Besides the parties whose programs are completely different than ours, we can work with all parties”.
The next national elections are due in 2023, but in light of the “Watergate” scandal regarding the surveillance of opposition politicians and journalists by Greeks secret services, the pressure is mounting to hold snap elections.
The next elections will be held with a new electoral law based on a simple majority, and analysts suggest that a coalition government will be needed to form a majority government.
But the equation is tough. New Democracy is currently leading all polls but will struggle to find coalition partners.
The main opposition Syriza party (EU Left) has been pushing for a government with progressive forces, including socialists (Pasok), leftist DiEM25 (of former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis) as well as the communist party.
The Greek socialists, who rank third in polls, are expected to play the kingmaker role. Still, after the scandal, which saw their leader Nikos Androulakis’ phone being bugged by the secret services, a post-election collaboration seems complicated, at least if Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis remains at his post.
Mitsotakis recently excluded any collaboration with the Greek Solution, but it seems that his party is testing the waters.
According to Voridis, the election dilemma will be to vote either for Mitsotakis or “return to 2015 under worse circumstances if there is a coalition as described by Syriza”.
The Greek government spokesperson also left the door open for collaboration with the far-right.
“New Democracy will seek to renew the strong mandate it received from the Greek people, everything else will be determined by the vote of the Greek people,” Yiannis Oikonomou commented.
New Democracy’s flirt with the far-right contradicts the current government’s position on the war in Ukraine, as the Greek solution is a party that has not hidden its pro-Russian feelings.
Its leader, Kyriakos Velopoulos, has openly criticised the decision of the government to send weapons to Ukraine, saying that Greece “needs its last bullet”.
In the beginning of the war, he told the Greek parliament: “In a war, you are with the defender. You are with the victim, with the crying children… Ukraine is not a friendly country, as Kyiv tweeted in favour of Turkish drones and Turkish friendship.”
In another speech, when Vladimir Putin was bombing Ukraine, Velopoulos stated:
“Yes, Putin made Russia. It is a truth. Is he authoritarian, extreme? Yes. However, for his country, he is a leader. We admired what he did [to create Russia]; we do not admire and condemn what he is doing now [with Ukraine]”.
A new trend?
The new political flirts in Greece seem to reflect a new trend at the European level.
The end of the much-discussed ‘grand coalitions’ between European centre-right parties and social democrats has .lpollsed the European People’s Party (EPP) to search for alternatives on the right side of the political spectrum to form governments.
The elections in Sweden and Italy could see traditionally pro-EU centre-right parties forming governments and alliances with far-right and Eurosceptic parties to counterbalance the progressive governments formed in countries such as Spain, Portugal and Germany.
In Italy, EPP leader Manfred Weber has backed a right coalition led by far-right leader Giorgia Meloni with the participation of Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia.
Weber has urged Italians to vote for Forza Italia to ensure that the right coalition will remain on the pro-EU path.
However, Europe’s progressives do not share the same view and see enormous risks for the EU project.
In an interview with EURACTIV Italy, Udo Bullmann, a German MEP from social democrat SPD and former S&D chief, said the EPP had always had difficulties making a clear cut with the far-right.
In Bullmann’s view, a “radical right-wing” government in Italy could open the door to an “Orbanisation” of democracy in an EU-founding state “, putting us back on the illiberal economic past, strengthening the illiberal sides of the society and deepening the inequalities”.
Similarly, Iratxe García, the leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D), told EURACTIV Italy ahead of a crucial vote on 25 September that Meloni’s coalition “would further undermine our EU founding values of equality, democracy and rule of law, and it would weaken the unity and solidarity we now so much need in the face of Putin’s aggression, due to their nationalist agenda”.
Source : EURACTIV