Alexis Tsipras resigns: lessons for progressives

Following Greece’s latest election, after which Alexis Tsipras announced his resignation, a journalist asked me: “What conclusion do you draw from this situation?” Here is my answer:

The crucial conclusion to be drawn is that radicals are never welcomed for long into the club of the powerful, even if they are willing to betray their principles to serve the powerful well. Tsipras has every reason to feel badly treated by the establishment.

Having imposed on the people of Greece, efficiently and – some would add – ruthlessly, the policies that he was elected to oppose, he succeeded in stabilising Greece (at the expense, of course, of the majority of Greeks) on behalf of the international oligarchy. To do so, he embraced (in the name of the… radical left!) oligarchic policies that even the most fervent political representatives of the oligarchy, when in government, had baulked at introducing. And what did he get for it?

While in government, doing the oligarchy’s dirty bidding, the establishment accommodated him, throwing his way the odd compliment. But, once the dirty deed was done, the powers-that-be abandoned him going all out in their support of their traditional political representatives – the New Democracy party led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the ramp PASOK party. Without a shred of gratitude to their true saviour, Tsipras, they ditched him in an electoral environment where– as a result of his own choices – he stood no chance of garnering support from the people whom he had subjected to the troika’s oligarchic torture.

In short, leftists dallying with betrayal beware: It does not pay!