KKE’s Election Kiosk in Dafni Square-Athens
Two town squares in Athens had meetings with the KKE. Microphones were set up on very loud adn ti started prompt at 8.35pm which is unusual for a Greek public square meeting, as if they had other appointments and they needed to leave. No questions were allowed.
The first square had around 50-70 people the second between 100-150people in South Athens.The speakers read from a pre-written document whose emphasis was essentially how bad Syriza is and how pro-European they are. They spoke about the possibility of an uncontrolled default and the people should be organised and that Syriza lies when it says that we aren't on the verge of bankruptcy.
Immitos Square KKE Public Meeting
They mentioned the fact that Syrizas precursors voted for Maastricht and that the EU is the root of the crisis. They didn't mention a return to the Drachma or mention the Euro.
Their line on the EU has re-emerged as a critique on Syriza in these elections for a decade now when they have mentioned the Euro they have stated we should leave the EU and maintain the Euro. They also mentioned Antarsya alleging that whilst they have the correct position regarding the Eurozone this is just dust in ones eyes as they are an appendix of the socialdemocratic Syriza and many of their members end up in Syriza.
The same format occurred in another town square where the meeting started on time and was completed by 930pm. There were more people here, very few youth and mostly older and middle aged people.
KKE Meeting for Brahami District in S Athens
Having received around 550k votes the issue is if they can maintain them, if they lose half and go to around 4% they will be where Syriza was in 2004. If they drop below 3%, they won’t get parliamentary subsidies or representation. They didn't mention the steelworkers strike they controlled and lost, or the Coca Cola strike they didn't
control but the workers won. If they were serious about Syriza and they wanted to win its electoral base, they could have given it critical support, even joined a slate with it (and made this known) and then attacked it if it backtracked on its pre-electoral programme of Abolishing the Bailout terms. But they aren't interested in that.
The Greek electorate is now attempting to vote for a govt not just anti-Bailout parties so it is logical to see a drop in PASOK’s vote and as Venizelos stated there is no unifying ideology anymore keeping them together. Hence the KKE not wanting to govern either on its own or with Syriza, will logically see its vote drop. If it falls below GD it will be tragic, if they maintain their vote they will consider it a success, if they surpass their previous vote it will be a miracle.
VN Gelis