I think it is very important what is happening before the elections in France.
On the one hand, because of the result elections on June 30 much will be decided for the whole of Europe. If the far right manages to get a majority and form a government, even in “cohabitation” with Emmanuel Macron as president, the way will be opened for a wider right turn in Europe.
On the one hand, because in France itself, it is very likely that the far-right will also win the presidency in 2027, and on the other hand, because in Europe, the fact that the far-right will rule in the country of the European “core” will mean big changes. The “taboo” not to be considered in the “constitutional arc” will now be overcome, while the already more right-wing European People’s Party will prefer cooperation with the far-right to trying to balance with socialists and liberals. And this will mean an even worse European policy in all areas, starting with immigration and especially “European solidarity”.
On the other hand, what is happening right before the elections in France is important, because there it was seen that there are reflexes in the wider democratic space to continue a decisive movement of unity against the threat of the far right. And I understand those who argue that such a reflexive move, a “power” move, does not reflect any strategic acumen, but only a survival instinct, nevertheless, it does not lose its importance.
Because it is clear that today any effort to restore a strong democratic space must be the result of a meeting between the various currents that it includes, and not just their competition.
And the meeting is not only a sum of forces, it is also a synthesis of views and mutual movements. This means that social democracy takes positions that are really opposed to the authoritarian neoliberalism of the center right, that ecology does not play “on the other side of left and right” and that the “radical left” understands that there is a distance between writing manifestos and exercising power.
Obviously, Greece is not France. We have a different electoral system, and the far-right do not yet? the first force (as it was in the European elections in France). But we are still a country where the traditional political alternation of left and right is broken: the right rules without rivals and a fragmented and not particularly effective democratic opposition, so that the government not only feels powerful, although it took a “resounding” slap in the polls to the European Parliament, but behaves as if he is only threatened by the far right, making a “turn to the right”.
In this situation, a wider mobilization of the forces referred to in the democratic progressive exit is clearly necessary. The rally is not only to increase the amount, but mainly as a serious effort to form a common field for discussion and strategy development.
And this means that the main thing is not just anti-state reflexes, but primarily a program that shows that the country can really “go differently” for the benefit of all, not some. And this is done not because of the stress of the constant communication presence and various one-man performances that we see, and certainly without shaking off the mothballs from the former rhetoric and wider aesthetics of PASOK to present it as a “fierce opposition”.
This means that someone takes the initiative to mobilize people who have knowledge and experience, to listen to them, to discuss with them, to organize events that above all give them a voice, in general to avoid that “self-activity” that in 2015 brought a whole the country is essentially not ready for what the Europeans call “negotiations”.
And whether and to what extent you can take that initiative on those terms and that emphasis on real political training is also the real test of whether you really offer leadership. Because leadership isn’t measured by how well you recommend or promote yourself as a leader, even if you’re in that position mainly because people are tired of anything that smacks of “mechanism”, but whether you have you actually have something to say. The percentages of the elections to the European Parliament are indicative in this regard, which showed that likes on social networks are one thing, and voting at the ballot box is another.
Because sometimes, in order to “write history”, new faces are needed to answer new tasks. But in other cases, it takes individuals who have already passed the test to show that they can follow the changes, be aware of new challenges and try to offer new answers in a continuous dialogue with a society that is looking for a form that would represent it and respond to its deep anxiety. about the future.
in the end for now, the center-right seems to be “schooled” in reality under pressure from the far right to make the adjustments they think are necessary, not a Democratic faction in crisis.
So instead expect a catalyst for any rally, ie. the next turning point that will prove that the enemy of evil is… what is worse, it is better to discuss and build another hegemony, first of all in an angry but also fragmented society, must be done now
Because the strength of the democratic space is never only its program or only its ideas. It lies in the fact that it can take root in society and thus transform not only the political space, but also society, giving it the confidence it lacks and thus the hope it needs.