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| Electoral rally of the KKE in Athens, 5 June 2024 |
With 9.30% and more than 350,000 votes, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) marks a very significant electoral rise in June 9 European Elections, thus sending a resounding positive message, not only for the country's working class and popular strata, but also throughout Europe.
While far-right, ultra-conservative and racist political forces gain ground in EU countries (France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, etc), the rise of the KKE's electoral influence is a beacon of hope for Europe's peoples.
Let us remind that in the 2019 European Elections, the KKE had gained 5.35%, while in the 2023 Greek National Elections the Party was strengthened, receiving 7.7 per cent.
According to the latest results provided by the Greek Ministry of Interior, the ruling conservative New Democracy gains 28.6% and 7 seats in EU Parliament, the social democratic Syriza-Progressive Alliance 14.7% and 4 seats, PASOK-Movement For Change 12.9% and 3 seats, the far-right Elliniki Lysi, 9.5%, 2 seats.
The KKE maintains its 2 seats in the European Parliament, while its current MEPs, Kostas Papadakis and Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos, are being re-elected.
"We thank the hundreds of thousands who responded to the call of KKE and voted for our party throughout the country today," the General Secretary of the CC of the Party Dimitris Koutsoumbas stressed on Sunday after most of votes in European elections had been counted.
He also thanked the people and the youth of the large urban centers, especially of the largest region of the country, Attica, who highlighted KKE again as the third party by a large margin. "Overall, KKE registers another significant rise in relation to the European elections of 2019 and in relation to the parliamentary elections of 2023, where it had also raised its percentages," he stated.
"Some positive processes that have been taking place for a long time and that were expressed in parliamentary elections and in the labor/popular movement have been confirmed. A movement of questioning dominant policy, which is currently implemented by the New Democracy (ND) government, is becoming stabilized and strengthened," the General Secretary noted.
Dimitris Koutsoumbas emphasized that "political correlation remains negative for the populace, but there is a formidable force - the KKE party - that can contribute the day after to organizing the workers' and the people's struggle before difficult times ahead. The role of KKE was always much greater than any of its percentages, therefore its strengthening leads to greatly stronger struggles with greater effectiveness under the specific conditions."
"We believe," he added, "that the great abstention includes a significant percentage of protest against the ND government, as well as of discredit towards both the bourgeois political system and its parties, as well as towards the EU and its institutions, such as the European Parliament."
* Nikos Mottas is the Editor-in-Chief of In Defense of Communism.
