By Evi Tsakali,
Because of my master’s thesis (and of course out of personal interest), a large volume of literature related to the far right has come to my attention for the past months. In my research, I came across some exit polls according to whose estimations, in the first round of our national elections in early summer of 2023, 5,5% of the voters of Plefsi Eleftherias –Zoi Konstantopoulou’s party– self-identify as abiding to the Far Right. What was even more striking was the fact that -after the governing party Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy) and far right Elliniki Lysi- Plefsi Eleftherias was the third receiving party of former Golden Dawn voters, as 8,7% of those voting for Golden Dawn in 2019 voted for Plefsi Eleftherias in 2023.
How could this be?
One of the most controversial (and, if we want to be frank, most bullied) figures of the first Syriza government, especially in the context of her duties as the President of the Parliament, Zoi Konstantopoulou was constantly mocked for her stern and harsh attitude, her zealous dedication to parliamentary rules of procedure, which she would quote by heart on demand, her pompous choices of formulations and (for the less capable) her choice of clothes. She left the party, condemning its leadership for not living up to its promises and not abiding to their views after the referendum of July 2015. She would highlight how “an abyss” separates her politically from Alexis Tsipras or Yanis Varoufakis, and would be given the credit by some as remaining consistent to her beliefs.
In this heroic exodus, hence presenting herself (even if she didn’t mean to) as the leftiest of the leftists, one would expect that the party that she would have found (after she succumbed to the patriarchal advice to dress more feminine, smile more, and turn her clenched fist into the heart-shaped gesture that she is known for today) –Plefsi Eleftherias– would definitely belong to the Left. Despite Konstantopoulou’s persistence in not positioning Plefsi Eleftherias, insisting it belongs “neither to the Left nor to the Right”, the party is seated to the left of the Parliamentary assembly. It is the party that voted in favor of the legalization of same-sex marriage, with its MP Spyros Mpimpilas delivering a very emotional speech that received an almost unanimous applause in the House. Konstantopoulou has also, among others, recently attacked New Democracy’s Adonis Georgiadis for using the term “illegal migrants” –which she reminded the Ηouse that she had forbidden as the President of the Parliament in 2015– instead of the more appropriate “irregular”.
The inclination to the (Far) Right
Nevertheless, Konstantopoulou has been flirting with the Far Right through some of her statements and actions for quite some time; and we are focusing on her since Plefsi Eleftherias is –without a doubt– a political party that mainly revolves around its leader (which is suggestive of more authoritarian practices to begin with).
For the purposes of this article (and –again– due to my master’s thesis), I will illustrate the aforementioned with the example of how she handled the issue of the Golden Dawn. In September 2013, some days after Pavlos Fyssas’ murder, a law suspending the state funding for parties whose leading cadres have been accused of being members of a criminal organization was voted by the Parliament; Zoi Konstantopoulou would be the only MP of Syriza to abstain from the vote. In March 2014, she would be against the waiver of immunity of Golden Dawn MPs. The timeline continues likewise, as, one year later, she would call for the annulment of provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding that were voted in the absence of the imprisoned Golden Dawn MPs, aligning her position with their point of view that it constituted an “unconstitutional treatment”.
A charismatic and eloquent jurist, Zoi Konstantopoulou has managed to establish a strong leadership, posing as the axis around which Plefsi Eleftherias revolves; a leadership that is strongly based on antisystemic narratives and the rejection of Left-Right positioning in the political spectrum. Regardless, refusing to position yourself does not spare you the label of the Far Right if practice may suggest so… and as I had concluded for Mr. Koutsoumpas’ own flirt with Far Right discourse in a previous article, it can be proven very dangerous, encompassing political cynicism, reaction votes, and anything antisystemic under the same umbrella; and the purpose is to right the wrongs rather than react all the way to something that will be more perilous and potentially oppressive than the current establishment.
References
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Το διαρκές φλερτ της Κωνσταντοπούλου με την Ακροδεξιά, Σημείο για τη Μελέτη και την Αντιμετώπιση της Ακροδεξιάς. Σημείο. Available here
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Η Ζωή Κωνσταντοπούλου εκθέτει τον ακροδεξιό και ρατσιστικό λόγο της Ν.Δ. Efsyn. Available here
