PASOK and SYRIZA - What is the difference? PASOK - KINAL PASOK is a socialist democratic and left-wing nationalist party which was one of the two major parties from 1974 to 2012. It was the main opponent of New Democracy for most of its existence. However, due its failure to handle the debt crisis and due to being blamed for it partially it fell out of popularity in 2012 and SYRIZA rose as the new leader of the left-wing.
For many that was the end of PASOK. It was scoring around a 6% in national elections and rebranded. This convinced the Greek populace that PASOK had come to an end. However, the 2023 election signaled to the world and Greek people that PASOK was back. After getting 12.3%, 20% higher than the polls predicted, PASOK made a comeback. It still is nowhere as big as it used to be but
it is the fastest growing major party in Greece. SYRIZA
SYRIZA is a socialist and left-wing party which rose as the main opposition party in Greece in 2012 when it ended the 40 year old two party dominance of PASOK and New Democracy.
SYRIZA is anti-EU and wants to stand up against the debtors and renegotiate new deals. SYRIZA got elected in 2015 and launched the country in an even larger economic crisis. Despite that, the party tried to increase minimum wages and fought against anti-immigration policy and measures.
In 2019, SYRIZA lost the election to New Democracy. They led the opposition since then and now attempted to make a comeback which failed. The 2023 election could potentially be the end of SYRIZA as a major player in Greek politics.
Is SYRIZA's rise to power going to be short-lived?
The new 2023 election has been catastrophic for SYRIZA. In 2015 SYRIZA got 35.46%, in 2019 35.14% and now in 2023 20.07%. SYRIZA was supposed to capitalize from Covid-19, the train disaster and the difficult time the early 2020s have been. Due to this SYRIZA expected a victory. In addition, election polls predicated the race to be close with around a 4% to 5% difference between the parties.
With SYRIZA falling to 20% and PASOK rising to 12% the difference between the two has never been closer. In addition, with a second round very likely PASOK is trying to rally support to possibly overcome SYRIZA and lead the opposition. This outcome is still very ambitious but with many SYRIZA voters fleeing to PASOK and how this election has turned out nothing is surprising.
