1 The Greek Left Tradition and SYRIZA: From “Subversion” to the new Austerity Memorandum John Milios 1 1. Introduction After the outbreak of the global economic crisis in 2008, Greece was actually the first Euro-area country where the neoliberal “shock doctrine” was imposed. This was an attempt to place all the fallout of the systemic capitalist crisis on the shoulders of the working people. These extreme austerity policies were not left undisputed. A series of mass demonstrations and strikes ensued. The most important result of these mass movements was the fast disintegration of the political system as we used to know it, mainly through the unravelling of the Socialist Party (PASOK) that has stayed in power for more than twenty years in the last three decades and which negotiated a troika (IMF-ECB-EU) “stabilization program” for the country and introduced class- ridden austerity policies. 2 Mass movements and popular demonstrations finally led to national elections in May and June 2012, through which the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) became the major opposition party in Parliament. 3 In the early national elections on January 25, 2015, SYRIZA achieved a stunning victory with 36.3%, as compared to 27.8% of conservative New Democracy and 4.7% of PASOK, the two government coalition partners, until that time. This electoral result was translated to 149 parliamentary seats for SYRIZA, out of the total 300, and led to a coalition government with the “Independent Greeks” (ANEL), an anti-austerity party stemming from the conservative political camp (4.75%, 13 seats). 4 1 Professor of Political Economy, National Technical University of Athens. 2 PASOK stayed in power during the following time periods: 1981-89, 1993-2004, 2009-11. In the period 2011-15 PASOK participated in coalition governments with various parties, the conservative New Democracy being the main partner. 3 SYRIZA was until then a small radical left party (4.6% in the national elections of 2009), see also below. 4 New Democracy elected 76 MPs and PASOK 13 MPs. Other parties in the Parliament: Golden Dawn (Nazis) 6.3% and 17 seats, To Potami (liberals) 6% and 17 seats, KKE (Communist Party of Greece) 5.5% and 15 seats.