The victory of center-left candidate Lula da Silva in the Brazilian elections was another reason to draw attention to the internal rivalry between SYRIZA as well as PASOK for … the eyes of the socialists. The conflict that emerges above all centers around the European Socialists (PES), with whom Alexis Tsipras has begun a stubborn flirtation in recent years. Lula’s victory was cheered yesterday by both Mr Tsipras as well as Mr. Androulakis. And in this case, PASOK believes that the Brazilian politician is in the same natural political space as they are, a space that in Harilaou Trikoupi, in their opinion, Alexis Tsipras is trying to usurp in order to show SYRIZA as more influential in international political life. environment than what is actually . In any case, the victory of the centre-left in Brazil has interested allied political forces in many parts of the world, who believe that it can become an impetus and a source of inspiration for the overthrow of political associations elsewhere. And, of course, in the case of SYRIZA and PASOK in Greece. Thus, it should be expected that the interest of the two parties claims to project cooperation in the same political space with the center-left of Brazil.

How SYRIZA and PASOK compete to gain a foothold in the socialist space – different readings of the rise of Lula da Silva in Brazil.

For SYRIZA, the Lula victory is seen as a powerful message about the possibility of overthrowing powerful political systems that operate with a sense of dominance in the political arena. In other words, they believe that there is a correspondence to the political situation here and an important political message is given that a coup may occur in our country on the way to elections. PASOK shares the view that the pre-election message in Brazil is especially important for strengthening the influence of an alternative to a right-wing political proposal. However, they believe that this alternative and the politically linked proposal is not SYRIZA’s proposal, but theirs.

The conflict between SYRIZA and PASOK over an alliance with the socialists has been developing for years, since in 2015 SYRIZA increased its electoral power and much more than its electoral dominance. It was then that the rapprochement between Alexis Tsipras and the Eurosocialists developed dynamically. The President of SYRIZA began to be invited and participate in meetings of the European Socialist Party as an observer. A development that caused intense and obvious discomfort on the part of PASOK. Despite the fact that Mr. Tsipras continues contacts with the Eurosocialists, the information that SYRIZA’s entry into the European Socialist Party was considered a matter of time has not yet been confirmed. Evil tongues say that this was facilitated by the great activity of Nikos Androulakis within the Eurosocialists. SYRIZA said that Mr. Tsipras’s actions are cautious and aimed at greater cooperation between socialists, leftists and environmentalists at the European level. PASOK representatives, again, do not seem to share these assessments and believe that the mobility and influence of the President of SYRIZA at the international level in terms of interventions and alliance building is extremely limited, given that he also served as prime minister.