14% of Greeks would vote for a new far-right party
The most important finding of the recent GPO poll, in my opinion, does not concern the issue of same-sex marriage, where Greek society appears divided, with 48.1% in favour and 49.8% against, nor the question of the establishment of private universities where 56.2% answered that they agreed, while 40.7% that they disagreed.
The important finding is that 38.8% of respondents believe that there is room to the right of the ruling New Democracy to establish a new party and that 13.9% say they would vote for this new party.
This is an assessment that follows European data, where more and more citizens are looking for political options beyond the fringes of traditional right-wing parties. Above all, they are anxiously looking for answers to the issues concerning economic hardship, unemployment, and immigration.
It is no coincidence that part of the German Left also turned in this direction, easily adopting the positions of the far-right party AfD in relation to immigration.
To the right of New Democracy, today are the successors of the Golden Dawn, the representatives of the religious and para-religious organisations and the defenders of Russian interests. And in fact, in the parliamentary elections of last June, all of them together had collected close to 13% of the votes.
In the recent GPO poll, these parties gathered a percentage of 10.5% of the sample of respondents. Nevertheless, close to 39% of respondents believe there is room for creating another political party in this area. It would be interesting to know what this estimate is based on.
Is it the fact that parties to the right of New Democracy are comical and that they do not express a composed space? Or that they do not propose political solutions?
Because the truth is that politics is not produced with swastikas, rosaries and ointments. Denial is produced, reaction is produced, and discredit is produced, but not politics.
And this new party would be ready to vote for almost 14% of the respondents. That is, citizens who are ready to vote for a party that will simply be "more right" than New Democracy.
This 14% is not a small percentage. Especially if it is added to the 13% gathered by this wider area in the parliamentary elections 2023, it would be interesting to know what this 14% is voting for now.
Are they from the Centre Right? Citizens who are dissatisfied with the policies of New Democracy? Or are they citizens from the space of the Left that is being liquidated after the split in Syriza? Could the apolitical figure of Stefanos Kasselakis, the graphic nature of the Communist Party of Greece and the broken image of the other groups push some citizens to look for a new robust anti-systemic voice "that will tell them" and "that will expose them"?
And whoever rushes to answer that this is not happening should study a little the tectonic movements of the voters of the Left towards the French Far Right, as well as the Ovidian transformations of the voters in the states of eastern Germany. But here, in Greece, did we not experience the complete identification of the extremes during the period of the movement of the indignant in the squares, the anti-memorandum front or the anti-vaccination wave?
National issues, immigration, insecurity, racism, identity fears, and economic hardship are reasons that could lead to the creation of a new party to the right of New Democracy—provided that this party would have a serious and intelligent leader, an organised leadership team and a plan to contact the voters.
Nazis cannot play a political role today. However, a "smart" far-right political party can participate. The material is there, and the spark is easy to find. The democratic political system must deal with this possibility.
Konstantinos Harokopos is a columnist for Liberal.
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