Marxist-Leninists*

These are members of KKE, that is, the Communist Party of Greece. They are one of the few Orthodox Marxist-Leninist parties left in Europe with a real electoral presence. They are as you would expect extremely anti-NATO and anti-American and of course extremely socially conservative.

The latter, in fact, is their main difference with the other main far-left parliamentary faction, traditionaly represented by Syriza - meaning Coalition of the Radical Left (before '04 known as Syn, that is the (first) word, Coalition. With the latter hailing from the Eurocommunist split of the once united KKE, and was initially albeit briefly called 'KKE (of the) Interior.' Although since the fall of the USSR they mostly identify (at least in their external/public narratives) as Democratic Socialists,' they are pretty conservative as far as ideology is concerned, with the exception being social issues where they are more accepting. Again their main difference with KKE. This means that their core members, even if they don't actively participate, support and legitimize with their narratives such actions. Many (most?) of them being pro-Russian, so-called 'anti-imperialists,' and anti-West.

In the last decade and a bit during the financial crisis they accepted initially a lot of center-left members -- formerly of Pasok, which during its founding espoused a lot of radical leftist rhetoric due to the experience and reaction to the late 60s early 70s dictatorship of the Colonels in Greece, something that remains in the DNA of the party making the transition to a leftist party for many of them a lot easier -- and later a lot of anti-establishment populists throughout the period making it more of a reactionary populist party.

Even though they managed to form a minority government in '15 until '19 they have since then collapsed - electorally in '23 and in the polls over the last year. The main cause being that even though they claimed to now be a 'center-left party,' adding the phrase 'Progressive Alliance' in their name, this was nothing more than role-playing, and they remained the same reactionary, anti-establishment populist party. Over the past year the party has experienced a number of splits. Initially when a group of leftist MPs left to form 'Greek Left,' which did not manage to elect MEPs in the last EU election and constantly polls bellow the 3% needed to enter parliament. Since then the old Eurocommunist/Democratic Socialist core (the ones who remained) has 'reclaimed' the party pushing everyone else out, who are in the process of forming a new party. Currently, they poll in single digits.

I hope this brief note on Greek leftist/far-left parliamentary parties helps.