SYRIZA raises spectre of a New Democracy neo-liberal restoration

By George Gilson

As it enters the last stretch of the campaign in a general election that all polls indicate it will lose, SYRIZA's main strategy is to depict New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his party as a force that will bring a restoration of neo-liberal austerity policies.

Tispras is on the one hand blaming New Democracy and the Samaras government for implementing policies dictated by Greece's creditors but on the other hand he is arguing that those policies are ideologically in line with the views of Greece's conservative party.

As he did in the European Parliament election, Tsipras himself is taking the lead in the campaign for the simple reason that despite all his broken promises and tragic policy errors -  especially in the first six months of his first term but also in an economic policy (as Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos conceded) of over-taxing the middle class to help those at or below the poverty line, while at the same time slashing public investment that would normally provide a critical growth momentum - he remains the most recognisable asset of a party that was garnering at best five percent of the vote before being swept to power on a wave of popular outrage.

Even his staunchest opponents do not deny Tsipras' communications skills and his track record as a crafty tactician.

Tsipras has undertaken a media blitz that is unprecedented for Greek prime ministers with almost daily television and radio interviews in which he follows the cardinal rule of political communication -hammering one or two issues which are clearly conveyed to the public until they are fully ingrained and which are used to turn the opponent's main advantage into an Achilles' heel.

In that context, Tsipras' central strategy is...