Tsipras and the Rhetorical Speech as Policy

Abstract

It is the first time after the restoration of democracy in Greece that such a U-turn has been conducted. The radical, unconventional and extreme rhetoric against harsh austeritywas sharply transformed into a tactical retreat in order to supposedly support more effectively the public interest. SYRIZA, a heterogeneous alloy of leftist tendencies, treated the popular anger and resentment towards harsher austerity measures in order to achieve electoral rise. Consequently, it was rapidly transformed from a small – protest – party into a power party. In this instance, it transformed, without moral curb, citizens’ despair into an extreme rhetoric which defended their “rights” in order to rise to power. Namely, SYRIZA treated instrumentally the expectations of the desperate as a means to rise to power in order to benefit the party but not for the whole society.