The rise and the resignation

When Alexis Tsipras took over SYRIZA in 2008 - thanks mainly to Alekos Alavanos - the Synaspismos party had shed the permanent angst of the progressive left about whether it would make the 3% cut to enter Parliament, even though the rate of 5% in the 2007 elections was not very promising, not to mention the drop to 4.6% in 2009. 

On Thursday, Tsipras stepped down. It was the right thing to do, for him and for his party, which saw its popularity nosedive even further in last Sunday's election. There was a time when 18% would have been regarded as an excellent performance, if not a miracle, by the party, but after three wins (in the 2014 European election and the national ballots in January and September 2015) and the first-ever leftist-led government, it is nothing to be pleased about.

In a parallel universe, SYRIZA would have won the January 2015 election with one...