The Lernaean Hydra of populism

The Great Recession had a profound impact on Greece's political landscape, fueling the rise of various anti-establishment parties. This culminated in a coalition government between the radical left party SYRIZA and the far-right party ANEL in January 2015, with an unrealistic agenda to renegotiate Greece's bailout agreements in order to end austerity and reverse the severe economic downturn that had begun in 2010. Using survey data, we focus on those who voted for SYRIZA and ANEL in January 2015 and analyze their voting behavior in the September snap election. Between the two elections, the coalition's failure to secure a new bailout agreement led to the imposition of capital controls to prevent excessive deposit outflows, which in turn led to a sharp economic decline in the third quarter of 2015, when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called the snap election. Our results show that a significant portion of SYRIZA voters, representing nearly 90% of the coalition's electoral base, affected by the economic stress shifted their support to ideologically similar anti-establishment parties. This indicates a strong likelihood of voters transitioning between anti-establishment parties, highlighting a persistent cycle of populism even within the context of a liberal democracy in the European Union.