Not at all paradoxical that the entire PASOK offered as a televised and political event, a product of wide consumption but with a short expiration date, in the debate of the six the political savoir vibré, aiming at relatively high television ratings (which existed) and attracting people (which it hopes will exist in internal party ballot box). The leading co-leaders left on the television table as a “cellar” for the post-election future their tactical differences and cross compliments or skirmishes based on selective political affinities, seasonal alliances or vertical political differences. And now the six candidates for the presidency of PASOK (Nikos Androulakis, Pavlos Geroulanos, Nadia Giannakopoulou, Anna Diamantopoulou, Harry Doukas and Michalis Katrinis) are adjusting their strategy, as is done when the intra-party competitions, and indeed for the selection of party leadership, enter the final stretch for the battle of the first ballot next Sunday, October 6, which will bring out the two most dominant. It is the first battle, which paves the way for the second round of elections for the presidency of PASOK (October 13), which will be connected either with a new leadership or with the rechristening of the current one.
The tension is escalating day by day, especially between the current president of PASOK N. Androulakis and the candidate for president of PASOK and mayor of Athens X. Doukas, whom the opinion polls show as the top duo. Close up of An. Diamantopoulou and Pavl. Geroulanos, who do not let anything fall down and intervene, constantly calling for restraint and low tones in the political confrontation without failing to target X. Doukas. Paul. Geroulanos abandons him, just like N. Androulakis, as an orchestrator of artificial polarization and An. Diamantopoulou hints that he can lead PASOK into disintegrating situations like SYRIZA.
The polarization
Many, combining the attitude of the presidential candidates in the telefight with their positions on Doukas’ complaints about verbal attacks against him that have the form of “murder”, believe that a bloc of second-round alliances has been formed (Androulakis – Geroulanos – Diamantopoulou Vs Doukas – Giannakopoulou – Katrinis) that will be activated, even if they do not publicly support, when the duo of first and second place is elected. Doukas’ post on social media that “close associates of Nikos Androulakis have been attacking me with right-wing and far-right rhetoric for a very long time” caused an uproar. The atmosphere was charged, especially after the debate, with Duke noting that their attack “turned into an extreme character assassination contract. They have reached the point of reproducing exactly the mud that feeds Maximos against me.”
N. Androulakis, who rejected the objections and asked that some people not look for a lifeline in an artificial polarization, found Pavlos a supporter. Gerulano, who said, among other things, that “artificial tensions that do not concern anyone do not help at all”. But on the same wavelength is Ann. Diamantopoulou, who dryly threw out the remark: “Comrades, be careful not to get stuck with SYRIZA”, as N. Androulakis had also warned a few days ago: “Let’s not let PASOK suffer what happened to SYRIZA”. . N. Giannakopoulou and Mich. Katrinis did not rush to install themselves without being asked, as did their other two non-candidates. The anti-SYRIZA line binds them and forms in their rivalry towards X. Doukas, which is also opposed by Maximou.
The case was further complicated by the fact that the last straw that broke the duke’s staff’s annoyance – he proved inflexible in artistic expression – was a sketch of Andreas Petroulakis (“Daily”). The cartoonist found himself in the political turmoil of the internal party elections of PASOK and proceeded to make a clarifying statement, noting among other things: “Some of his associates are peddling the macabre version that I am pretending to be dead (where did they think it, since they see him walking around proudly). In any case, and to put it bluntly, I have made him fully alive, but also small-minded.”
The fear of experimentation
Failures in answers that X. Doukas gave (or did not give) in the telefight became the subject of sharp criticism. However, he is effectively defeated because he differs politically from his other fellow candidates and certainly from Ann. Diamantopoulou, having a more left-wing profile and projecting that he has a front against the neoliberal frenzy of privatizations in education, health and transport. However, he has started to round the corners more, now clearly stating that he is in favor of the revision of Article 16 for non-state/private HEIs, while he even became disturbed by Ms. Diamantopoulou’s reports about the cooperation of PASOK – SYRIZA – ANTARSYA for his victory to the Municipality of Athens – “this is deeply offensive. I have always been PASOK” he answered.
In this confusion, the intervention made by the lawyer acquires additional importance Kostas Papadakishead of the municipal faction Subversive Alliance for Athens (members of ANTARSYA and not only), emphasizing, among other things, the mayor’s rhetoric about private universities, low capital taxation and high taxation of employees, metro in Exarchia, housing problem, greenery, overbuilding of Athens: “It is certainly a success for the city movements and the factions that express them that the formulation of even rhetorical goals to the mayor. The Duke, with his own sensibility, chose to project these and not e.g. the Memorandum of Cooperation of the Municipality with ELAS. If the audience shared the views of Diamantopoulos, then we would indeed be talking about the conservatism of society.”
The opponents of Doukas base their attacks on the fact that he is not an MP and on the logic of the two watermelons (mayor and party leader), which they believe will prevent him from coping with the demands of the PASOK leadership as a party that claims to be the dominant pole of opposition to the ND and a potential alternative governance proposal. The crisis in SYRIZA and the arguments from the election of Kasselakis cause associations in Charilaou Trikoupis with the modernist and indestructible mayor and his opponents cultivate in the voters the fear of experimentation and change of leadership now that PASOK has gone through an electoral process of small but continuous rise .
At every opportunity, PASOK’s candidate for president and Member of Parliament for Athens 1 Paul. Geroulanos, who constantly repeats that the president of PASOK must be an MP, appears as a guarantor of unity. At the same time, he presents his plan for the regeneration of the country. He believes that the threshold for participation in the PASOK elections is 300,000-350,000 voters, “because such expectations are created, that something new can be born and this is important to give PASOK the boost it needs”.
Although she has a right-wing social-democratic profile and contacts in the recent period claiming the presidency of PASOK, Ms. Diamantopoulou addresses, as before, mainly the center but has added to her rhetoric with an emphasis on the Left as well. He points out that in these elections “we are voting for the next prime minister […] and what we want is for the social democrats to be united both at the base and at the top.” She recently set the turnout threshold at 400,000 voters, noting that her candidacy, whether elected or not, has helped draw people. In her opinion, in the new era, PASOK must become participative and its leadership must have international experience both in the Parliament and in the government.
Business… rebaptism
Right now, N. Androulakis asserts that his goal is for PASOK to defeat ND. “This will happen when all the forces from the center and from the Left fall in the bed of the democratic faction. The faction opens from below, it is open to everyone, but with moral and value rules and not with adventures and results”, he says. He has pledged that the party after the second round of internal party elections for the presidency (13.10.24) will be different and sets three immediate goals for PASOK the next day: to improve the organizations in the region, to acquire more radical communication tactics and to have political figures in the major urban centers. “I will do them and we will become a government” he notes.
The candidate for president and member of parliament of the Western Sector of Athens Nant does not stop firing against N. Androulakis. Giannakopoulou. He accuses him of disarming the collective party organs and improper party functioning. In fact, recently, after the telefight where he raised this issue, he came back in an interview (Kontra) accusing the current president of PASOK for the fact that in previous years there were cliques and groups in PASOK and a climate of exclusion and division.
PASOK’s presidential candidate and member of parliament Ilias Mich tries to express the patriotic PASOK. Katrinis, who at the same time is in favor of the formation of a large open democratic faction. Characteristic was his confrontation with N. Androulakis regarding his position in favor of the abolition of the veto in the EU. Although N. Androulakis observed that the veto in EU matters, which does not change, is one thing, and another in matters of economic and fiscal rules imposition of fines etc. But Mich. Katrinis, connecting with the developments in the Cyprus issue, wanted to deconstruct Androulaki’s position regarding the veto. At the same time, he appears frontal in matters of economic policy. He mentions characteristically in his interventions: “If PASOK is silent and does not react in front of the cartel economy that is looting the country and the income of the citizens, how can it win the trust of the Greek citizens?” If we accept these logics, then we are not PASOK. Then we will not differ in anything from the NT. We are betraying our history.”
Searching for the identity of the party and its voters
Although it was conducted before the debate, a nationwide survey by the Citizens’ Movements for Social Democracy, which participates in PASOK, is of particular interest. It concerns the elections for the presidency of PASOK and includes, among other things, cooperation issues and criteria for selecting the president of PASOK. In a sample of 909 members of Citizen Movements for Social Democracy, the ND is judged as an ideological opponent (64.69%) rather than a strategic one (34.65%) and is characterized as a conservative party (77.56%), while some (16.17%) ) consider it reformatory. Accordingly, most of them have the opinion that SYRIZA is a strategic opponent (41.58%), while the rest are divided in the position that it is an ideological (29.37%) and a potential opponent (29.04%). At the same time, the majority characterizes it as a populist party (79.54%) instead of a progressive party (12.21%).
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