THE POLITICAL PARTIES IN
GREECE
How many parties exist in Greece?
Nowadays, there are many political parties.
However, only 5 of them participate in the
Greek parliament. These are the ones that
usually get the most votes. Thereby, these 5
will be analyzed below…
Communist Party of Greece (KKE)
•
Founded in 1918, the Communist Party of Greece ,
is a far-left party, and the oldest one on
the Greek political scene
•
KKE is a force in the Greek political scene, rallying
a significant amount of support within the
organized working-class movement. KKE is
currently trying to mold a loose and rather
disorganized international communist movement
along a purely Marxist-Leninist line.
•
KKE's youth organization is the Communist Youth
of Greece, KNE, which closely supports KKE's goals
and strategic targets.
•
It publishes the daily newspaper Rizospastis. It
also publishes the political and theoretical
journal Komounistiki Epitheorisi (Communist
Review) every two months and a journal covering
educational issues, Themata Paideias (Education
issues). It also owns the 902 TV and radio station.
•
Every year the youth organizes the annual festival
of KNE, where many well-known music artists give
concerts.
Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA)
• The Coalition of the Radical Left,
is a coalition of left political
parties in Greece, which emerged
in 2004 from smaller left parties.
• Its ideology is democratic
socialism, anti-capitalism, and
eco-socialism.
• It is a member party of the
European Left.
• Just like KKE, SYRIZA’s Youth,
called Neolaia Synaispismou
(youth coalition) , organizes its
own music festival.
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Panhellenic Socialist Movement
(PASOK)
It is a social democratic party,
founded in 1974, exactly after the
collapse of the military dictatorship,
by Andreas Papandreou.
It was the first left party in the Greek
history to win the elections in 1981
with 48%.
It remained in power for lots of years,
from 1981 to 1989, then from 1993
to 2004 and finally from 2009 until
present.
In 2010, the Prime Minister and
leader of PASOK, adopted neoliberal
policies, allegedly under the pressure
of the European Union, like further
privatization of state enterprises,
salary cuts and heavier taxation of
working and middle class citizens.
New Democracy (ND)
• New Democracy is the
main centre-right political
party and one of the two major
parties in Greece.
• It was founded in 1974
by Konstantinos Karamanlis and it
was the first party to rule Greece
after the fall of the military
dictatorship.
• Its ideology is conservatism,
liberal conservatism and Christian
democracy, and its political
position is centre-right.
• New Democracy is now the main
opposition party in the Hellenic
Parliament, after its smashing
defeat in the 2009 Greek
elections in which they recorded
their historical lowest percentage
of votes.
Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS)
• It was founded and led by
journalist Georgios Karatzaferis.
He formed LAOS in 2000, a few
months after he was expelled
from the centre-right New
Democracy.
• The party claims to consist of
radically diverse groups that span
the entire Left-Right political
spectrum.
• Its ideology is mainly Greek
nationalism and National
Conservatism. It is a Right-Wing
political party.
• It has a youth called “NEOS”,
which means “young” in Greek