Is Syriza left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Syriza scores −06 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores −07. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Syriza authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, Syriza scores −02. Parliamentary; used a referendum in 2015 and then accepted terms the referendum rejected.

Atlas / Organisations / Syriza

Syriza

2004– · Greece · Democratic Socialist · Electoral party · coding confidence medium

−06ECcollective

−07CUpluralist

−02AUpluralist

+01SCcentral

−07IDuniversal

−03CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Anti-austerity, debt relief, welfare restoration, secularisation, refugee rights.

Economic model

Reversal of pension and wage cuts, public investment, higher taxes on capital — constrained in office by creditor agreements.

Organisation of powers

Parliamentary; used a referendum in 2015 and then accepted terms the referendum rejected.

Reading note

Its trajectory in office is a useful record of how external constraint moves a coordinate without changing a programme.

Check a claim about Syriza. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

Open in the atlas

The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored −06

Coded −6: anti-austerity commitments substantially constrained in office.

Documented act or statuteCalled a referendum rejecting creditor terms in July 2015 and signed a third memorandum weeks later.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −07

Coded −7: separated church and state functions and legislated civil partnership.

Documented act or statuteLegislated same-sex civil partnership in 2015 and gender self-identification in 2017.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −02

Coded −2: parliamentary, holding a referendum and then acting against its result.

Documented act or statuteThe July 2015 referendum rejected creditor terms by 61%; the government signed a memorandum three weeks later.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +01

Coded +1: national programme constrained by supranational creditors.

Documented act or statuteThe memoranda transferred substantial fiscal authority to the institutions.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −07

Coded −7: refugee reception against strong domestic and European pressure.

Documented act or statuteAround 850,000 people arrived by sea in 2015 under its government.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −03

Coded −3: parliamentary throughout, including when its own referendum was overridden.

Documented act or statuteAccepted the 2019 electoral defeat and transferred power.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

Greece

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Syriza. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/syriza/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.