Popular Unity ( el, Λαϊκή Ενότητα (ΛΑΕ), ''Laïkí Enótita'', LAE) is a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. Popular Unity was founded on 21 August 2015 by twenty five parliamentarians formerly affiliated to the

Coalition of the Radical Left The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance ( el, Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Προοδευτική Συμμαχία, Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás – Proodeftikí Simachía), ...

(Syriza), as a reaction to

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Alexis Tsipras Alexis Tsipras ( el, Αλέξης Τσίπρας, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician serving as Leader of the Official Opposition since 2019. He served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019. Tsipras has led the Coalition of th ...

' handling of the Greek bailout agreement of 2015. It is led by the former Minister of Energy

Panagiotis Lafazanis Panagiotis Lafazanis ( el, Παναγιώτης Λαφαζάνης, ; born 19 November 1951) is a Greek politician. He served as the leader of a new Greek left-wing political party, Popular Unity, from 21 August 2015 until his resignation on 2 J ...

. Due to receiving 2.86% (vs. the required 3%) of the popular vote in the September 2015 election it has no seats in the Parliament.

History

Popular Unity was founded on 21 August 2015 by 25 parliamentarians formerly affiliated to the

(Syriza), as a reaction to

' handling of the Greek bailout agreement of 2015. At foundation Popular Unity was the third largest party in the

Greek parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule of the Hellenes, label=none), also known as the Parliament of the Hel ...

. It is led by the former Minister of Energy in the Tsipras cabinet,

Dimitris Stratoulis Dimitris (Δημήτρης) is the Modern Greek form of the older forms Demetrios, Dimitrios (Δημήτριος, usually Latinized as Demetrius) and may refer to: * Dimitris Arvanitis (born 1980), Greek professional football defender who plays fo ...

(former Alternate Minister of Social Security) and

Costas Isychos Kostas or Costas ( el, Κώστας) is a Greek given name and surname. As a given name it is the hypocorism for Konstantinos (Constantine). Given name * Costas Andreou, Greek musician * Kostas Antetokounmpo (born 1997), a Greek basketball player * ...

(former Alternate Minister of National Defence), who were sacked in July 2015, also joined the new party.

Election September 2015

On 2 September 2015, the party programme for the snap election on September 20 was published. The party received about 2.9% of the vote, below the 3% threshold to win any seats in parliament. In response to the result the party said, 'we lost the game but not the war'.

Naming

The name of the party is inspired by Popular Unity, the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an political alliance led by

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

Policies

The party favours Greek withdrawal from the

eurozone The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies ...

and reinstating the

drachma The drachma ( el, δραχμή , ; pl. ''drachmae'' or ''drachmas'') was the currency used in Greece during several periods in its history: # An ancient Greek currency unit issued by many Greek city states during a period of ten centuries, fro ...

as Greece's national currency. According to founding member Stathis Kouvelakis, a former member of Syriza's Central Committee, the new party supports

socialist internationalism Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is the perception of all communist revolutions as being part of a single global class struggle rather than separate localized events. It is based on the theory that ...

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

, Greece's exit from

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

, and breaking military agreements with

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Election results

Hellenic Parliament

European Parliament

Members of Parliament

Popular Unity had 26 members of the

Hellenic Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule (ancient Greece), Boule of the Greeks, Hellenes, label=none), also kno ...

prior to the September 2015 election, all of whom defected from

Syriza The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance ( el, Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Προοδευτική Συμμαχία, Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás – Proodeftikí Simachía), ...

. In alphabetical order, they were: * * * Kostas Delimitros * * * Ilias Ioannidis * Kostas Isihos * Thomas Kotsias * * * Aglaia Kyritsi *

Costas Lapavitsas Costas Lapavitsas ( el, Kώστας Λαπαβίτσας) is a professor of economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and was elected as a member of the Hellenic Parliament for the left-wing Syriza party in the ...

* Stathis Leoutsakos * * * Thanasis Petrakos * Elena Psarrea * Stefanos Samoilis * Thanasis Skoumas * * * Alexandra Tsanaka *

Nadia Valavani Olga-Nadia Valavani ( el, Όλγα-Νάντια Βαλαβάνη; born 16 August 1954) is a Greek politician and economist. She was appointed to the role of Alternate Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Alexis Tsipras on 27 January 2015. She ...

* * Ioannis Zerdelis

References

External links

*
Iskra

Plan B

The R Project
{{Greek political parties Left-wing politics in Greece 2015 establishments in Greece Anti-capitalist political parties Left-wing nationalist parties Eurosceptic parties in Greece Parties represented in the European Parliament Political parties established in 2015 Political schisms Socialist parties in Greece Syriza Left-wing parties Far-left politics in Greece Far-left political parties