119
establishment politics in general) are the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), the
Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), and the Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS)125 to
name the most popular and successful. Of course, the KKE has had a long history in
Greece; as mentioned above, they played a significant role in shaping the country’s
current political reality. SYRIZA formed in 2004 and stood for neoliberal reform and
increased civil liberties. This party has seen some successes, but its flourishing has been
hampered by infighting and, arguably, by ongoing public suspicion of left-wing politics
(see Panourgia 2009)126. Of special note, however, is LAOS. Despite a slow start in
2000, LAOS has managed to make gains year after year127. This is surprising as the party
is generally regarded as far-right, populist, or nationalist and pushes, among other things,
an anti-immigrant and anti-gay platform. Their strongest gains have been in major urban
centers, and seem to contradict the popular turn towards more liberal politics, as evident
in broader voting patterns. This suggests growing pockets of support for the extreme-
right ideology this party espouses.
In the last election, this far-right party won its greatest number of seats in
Thessaloniki, Athens, and Larissa: all three of these centers have seen recent explosions
in immigrant and undocumented migrant numbers. Larissa is a particularly interesting
case as it is an agricultural area and major transport hub linked by road and rail to the port
at Volos and to Athens and Thessaloniki. Larissa is also a main hub for immigrants
working as laborers in the agricultural sector and for undocumented migrants as they
move either to Athens or out of the country. Larissa, Athens, and Thessaloniki are major
125 There are various other parties as well, but they fail to attract large numbers of voters and have never
won any seats. I focus on SYRIZA and LAOS because they are the more politically successful of these
“secondary” parties.
126 Some of the founding parties of SYRIZA had links to communism.
127 See http://ekloges.ypes.gr/pages/index.html for official election results.