Democratic Left (, , DIMAR) was a

social-democratic Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, socia ...

political party in Greece. Formed as a split from Synaspismós, DIMAR was a

minor party A minor party is a political party that plays a smaller (in some cases much smaller, even insignificant in comparison) role than a major party in a country's politics and elections. The difference between minor and major parties can be so great t ...

supporting the Samaras cabinet from 21 June 2012 to 21 June 2013. After being a member of the Democratic Alignment (DISI) and the

Movement for Change The Gorran Movement (, ''Movement for Change'') or just Gorran (''Change'') is a Kurds in Iraq, Kurdish political party in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The party is led by Dana Ahmed Majid, it was formerly under the leadership of Omar Said ...

(KINAL), it affiliated to

Syriza The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance (), best known by the syllabic abbreviation SYRIZA ( ; ; a pun on the Greek adverb , meaning "from the roots" or "radically"), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politi ...

in 2019. The party was dissolved in 2022.

History

Foundation

DIMAR was founded on 27 June 2010 when the Renewal Wing platform of the left-wing party Synaspismós, a component of the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza)—among them MPs Fotis Kouvelis, Thanasis Leventis, Nikos Tsoukalis, and Grigoris Psarianos—exited Synaspismós at its 6th congress. They were joined by more than 550 individuals. At a subsequent national conference of the Renewal Wing, 170 members were elected to national policy committee of the new party. The first conference of DIMAR was held on 31 March – 3 April 2011. It elected Fotis Kouvelis as the party's leader with 97.31% of the vote. On 22 March 2012, six MPs from the

Panhellenic Socialist Movement The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK (; , ), is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012 it was one of the two major parties in the country, along with New Democracy, its main political r ...

(PASOK) joined the party, which raised the number of Democratic Left MPs to 10, the party was eligible to form a parliamentary group. The minor party Free Citizens also joined the Democratic Left on 22 March 2012.

2012 elections and governing coalition

In the May 2012 legislative election DIMAR received 386,116 votes (6.1%) and elected 19 MPs in the Greek Parliament, making it the seventh biggest party in the Hellenic Parliament. In the June 2012 legislative election, the DIMAR won 6.3% of the vote and 17 seats, making it the sixth largest party by seat count. It joined the Samaras cabinet with New Democracy (ND) and PASOK. In November 2012, the party decided to vote abstained/present to the labor market reform and "Midterm fiscal plan 2013-16" as part of the sixth austerity package negotiated with the Troika, while they cast a supportive vote for the "Fiscal budget 2013". As the party did not vote directly against the crucial reforms, it was afterwards possible to continue being a part of the three-party coalition government with New Democracy and PASOK. Following this political line however came at the price. Three of its MPs voted against the party line on the reforms, and consequently were asked to leave the party, thus reducing the party's number of MPs from 17 to 14. Democratic Left’s political charter has no paragraphs enabling for the exclusion of MPs from the party, but the three MPs being asked to leave were expected to follow the request, as they fundamentally disagreed with the party's political line. In April 2013, two former Democratic Left MPs, Odysseas Voudouris and Paris Moutsinas, were expelled from DIMAR's parliamentary group after having voted against the coalition government's seventh austerity package. They announced to form a new party, stating in a letter to party leader Fotis Kouvelis that their former party had "mutated" into a centrist one.

Back in opposition

On 21 June 2013, DIMAR left the governing coalition with ND and PASOK in protest of the unilateral closure of the state broadcasting corporation,

Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly shortened to ERT (), is the state-owned public radio and television broadcaster of Greece. History Overview ERT began broadcasting in 1938 as the Radio Broadcasting Service or YRE (). Followin ...

(ERT) which was opposed by both DIMAR and PASOK. The withdrawal left Samaras with a tiny majority with 153 New Democracy/PASOK MPs. In the 2014 European elections on 25 May 2014, DIMAR's vote collapsed, with the party receiving less than one fifth of the popular support it had in the national elections two years before (1.20%, down from 6.25%) and failing to win any seats in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

2015 legislative elections

On 4 January 2015 DIMAR announced it would contest the upcoming election in cooperation with the Greens. In the 25 January 2015 legislative election, the joint electoral list received a mere 0.49% of the vote, thus failing to return any DIMAR MPs to the

Hellenic Parliament The Parliament of the Hellenes (), commonly known as the Hellenic Parliament (), is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Greece, located in the Old Royal Palace, overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens. The parliament is the supreme demo ...

. On 30 August 2015, ahead of the forthcoming September snap election, PASOK announced an electoral pact with DIMAR, named the Democratic Coalition. In the September 2015 legislative election on 20 September 2015, the PASOK–DIMAR list received 6.3% of the vote, and returned 17 seats.

Opposition

DIMAR was one of the founding members of the

(KINAL) in March 2018. However, DIMAR left KINAL in January 2019. In April 2019, DIMAR affiliated with Syriza, ahead of the 2019 European election.

Election results

Hellenic Parliament

European Parliament

References

External links

* {{Greek political parties Political parties established in 2010 Political parties disestablished in 2022 2010 establishments in Greece Components of Syriza Democratic socialist parties in Europe Secular parties in Greece Social democratic parties in Greece Pro-European political parties in Greece