Eastern Mediterranean University Political Science and International Relations Department its third departmental seminar on 22 April 2015. Entitled “Syriza: A Historical Victory”, the seminar was presented by Associate Professor Dr. Stavros Tombazos.
The seminar commenced with an opening address from Assist. Prof. Dr. Umut Bozkurt, the vice chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations. The vice chair in her opening address introduced Dr. Tombazos as an experienced scholar in the field of political economy and political philosophy who has written several articles, book chapters and recently a book and is currently teaching at the Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cyprus.
Dr. Tombazos started his presentation by highlighting the fact that the victory of Syriza is a historical event not just in Greece but in Europe as a whole. He noted that it is the first time since the establishment of the neoliberal project in the early 1980s that a European Union member state has a government from the radical left. Dr. Tombazos underlined that Syriza is the first European government that has attempted to re-politicize politics. He supported his argument by referring to the way governing is conducted in the members of the European Union, which often focuses on the management and liberation of the economy rather than on real intervention that deals with the explosion of social inequality in the society.
He further underlined that the foundation of Syriza’s political philosophy and success was backed by the need for change. In this regard the speaker specified that European Union member states have witnessed changes in government from social democratic to liberal government but there has been no change in their socio-political agenda. Consequently, Syriza’s ideology to institute change and not just to administer existing policies is the driving force behind its victory.
The speaker continued his presentation by underlining five major reasons related to Syriza’s political culture that accounts for its success in Greece. Dr. Tombazos stressed that these factors were, firstly, Syriza’s active involvement in social movements such as the anti-globalization movement in the early 2000s; secondly Syriza’s active involvement in the movement of civil obedience and active participation in elections at local, national and European level; thirdly Syriza’s flexible reforms and openness to coalition with other parties; fourthly, the fact that the political program of Syriza was very concrete and realistic since it centers on everyday problems and not on abstract and general issues. Lastly he noted that Syriza’s political ideology has always been supported by a socialist agenda and the belief that its objectives can be achieved by imposing change on the social system.
Dr. Tombazos continued his presentation by outlining the socio-economic and political priorities of the new government in power. He emphasized that Syriza’s current objective is to fight the current humanitarian crisis and provide its citizens with access to food, shelter, better health services and employment; to create fiscal reforms in favour of the working class; to create new public administrative reforms in favour of public workers and to create humanitarian reforms in favour of prisoners and to reformulate immigration reforms in Greece.
Finally the speaker rounded up his presentation with the remark that European Union governments has been depoliticizing politics, practicing politics without concrete political agenda and establishing traditional political agenda that excludes social movement. According to his assertion, the victory of Syriza has provided an opportunity to redefine the traditional political framework, and incorporate it into the new socialist agenda. Dr. Tombazos lastly noted that the success of Syriza so far is a point of reference not just for Greece, but for other European and Latin American countries in general. The presentation was followed by a question and answer session.