Greece: If SYRIZA win, expect elite attacks

Lisa Mittendrein & Valentin Schwarz warn that If SYRIZA win, expect elite attacks.

European elites might instead choose to let SYRIZA come to power and then make it fail, either toppling the left government project as soon as possible with maximum pressure or attempting to corrupt the party. The latter would ensure the continuation of the austerity agenda, but also prevent leftists and movements across Europe from rallying behind SYRIZA and Greece.

Emphasis Mine

At least, people are not expecting a military coup. I thought this would have been likely given Greece's recent history.

Possibly the most serious strategy would be for the ECB to threaten to stop providing liquidity to Greek banks. Varoufakis describes this as a "nuclear weapon" which could bring the Greek banking sector down almost immediately.

It would be extreme, but not unthinkable: In December 2014, the ECB threatened to effectively cut off Greek banks unless the government complied with Troika wishes. Varoufakis is convinced that a SYRIZA government must be prepared for this form of blackmail if it is to last long enough to negotiate a new deal for Greece.

Despite all these challenges, there is still optimism among SYRIZA members. Although many consider it possible that their government could last only for a few weeks, they say their chances are better today than they would have been in 2012.

They see fractures within the neoliberal bloc that they can try to exploit, like the ECB’s fear of deflation, the position of Italy’s prime minister Matteo Renzi, and the recent conflicts within the French government.

By getting into government and implementing first measures, SYRIZA hopes to accelerate existing debates, especially within European social democracy and the trade unions.

Emphasis Mine

SYRIZA is fully cognizant of the extreme dangers that it faces in forming and maintaining a government. The best hope is that their supporters are in for the long fight. Then the government can rely on actions in the street to keep pressure up on the elites.

The elites always want a pacified population. They are continually worried about a population that regularly turn up to demonstrations and protests. An active population can be stirred up in a real revolution.