ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of the Greek debt crisis, an impressive series of large protests and numerous strikes occurred against austerity policies and structural adjustment reforms. It could be plausibly argued that this massive anti-austerity protest wave contributed heavily to the alteration of the political system in Greece and to the rise to power of the SYRIZA party, which was one of the main champions of the anti-austerity movement. But the structure of political and economic opportunities and threats only partially explains the rise of SYRIZA and even more so, its eventual compliance with austerity when it became a governmental party. In this chapter we are focusing on the views and the strategies of the main actors at the centre of these political processes. On the one hand, we examine the different views and tactics of the major organisations/groups (including political parties) that called and coordinated the most prominent and visible protest events (general strikes, demonstrations, square occupations) and on the other, we also take into consideration the tactics of the power-holders towards the challengers. Our findings suggest that the current political outcome of the Greek anti-austerity movement is largely due to the interaction between those actors that exploited circumstances to gain immediate advantage, namely to rise to power, and those actors whose actions are being guided by more consistent principles.
