It was a crucial meeting of the then Parliamentary Group of the PaSoK. Vaso Papandreou, then president of the Finance Committee of the Parliament, wanted to contribute to the government of national salvation. Some critical minutes did pass and then, when the vote was about to begin, a voice was heard in the Parliament chamber, that characteristic heavy voice of Vasos saying: “It is not a vote of confidence in the government, but a vote of mandate for the formation of a government of national salvation ».
The crucial meeting of the PASOK Committee before Papandreou’s departure
It was at the end of 2011, shortly before the departure of the Papandreou government, when Mrs. Vasiliki (Vasso) Papandreou – who passed away today at the age of 80 – shouted from the back benches to the then president, in the last crucial meeting of Parliamentary Group, that “it is out of place and time” and that “I am ashamed of the party and the country”. Few knew, except perhaps 15 PASOK MPs, what had preceded and how determined the president of the Parliament’s Finance Committee was to contribute to the creation of a government of national salvation.
OR Mrs. Vaso Papandreou’s anger at the critical PASOK meeting came, it seems, because she was informed of the discussions that took place in the Council of Ministers, but also in the so-called Crisis Management Committee. There the position was heard that the procedure for providing a vote of confidence in the government could not be stopped constitutionally. He had learned that Mr. Ev. Venizelos and A. Lover (both professors of Constitutional Law) ruled out the possibility of interrupting this procedure that had started last Wednesday.
“What are they saying? It could if Mr. Papandreou wanted to go to Mr. Papoulias and to resign, requesting the formation government of national unity. If such a thing were to happen, it would not the process stopped immediately for the vote of confidence?” he wondered.
The alliance with the “devil”
Such was her insistence on the immediate resignation of the Prime Minister at the time, George Papandreou, and on the formation of a government of wider acceptance that she took care before entering the Parliament to ask for it in her statements – and indeed in an imperative style. And it wasn’t just limited to that. He decided to ally even with the “devil” that day. And the “devil” in this case was none other than the MPs of the ND Mrs. A. Spiliotopoulos, Mrs. Mitsotakis , Milt. Varviciotis and Ev. Antonarowho were preparing a written statement together with their PASOK colleagues for the formation of a government of national unity.
This time, however, the issue of resignation was not a simple matter of political confrontation, but, as he said, a national issue, “for lest the country sink into bankruptcy” . Nor, as she said in a conversation she had with “The Step”, was she interested in the vote of confidence in the government, as well as the resignations of the MPs, but she was only interested in how the country should be saved.
Without a doubt, however, Mrs. Papandreou’s interventions since the 2009 elections have always caused a “headache” for Maximos, but also for many MPs and ministers who are close to Mr. G. Papandreou. Except that the “headache” was not lasting for Maximou: although many times her criticism was sharp, Mrs. Papandreou never resigned as an MP. And not only that, but he even voted for the most “unpopular bills” of Mr. G. Papakonstantinou on the grounds that he did not want to take responsibility for the country’s bankruptcy. Despite this, her relations with Mr. Papandreou always remained cold.
Mr. Papandreou in all this time only met with her twice, once walking with her in the forecourt of the Parliament to convince her to vote for the Midterm and the second time a few weeks ago in his office when he tried to convince her to vote on the multi-bill. It was then that Mrs. Papandreou declared from the floor of the Parliament: “For last once I vote”.
The “iron lady” and the attacks on Papandreou
It all started before PASOK even became a government. In October 2007. At that time, during internal party elections, he had declared that many people became rich from PaSoK, causing reactions from the “whole” PaSoK. At the time when he had declared, moreover, directly attacking Mr. Papandreou, that “there are executives who have not been exploited”, speaking of “stems with experience” which the leadership of the party (and later the government) has not exploited, “experience that can’t be bought with anything” as he had characteristically said.
But what is it that makes the “iron lady”, as she was once called in PaSoK, turn several times against the prime ministers, father and son, Papandreou? However, she said that she was not seeking a ministerial position.
However, they say in PaSoK, he did not want to give in to Papandreou in matters of economy and governance. Many still remember when he crossed the hall and handed a note to Andreas Papandreou at a meeting of the Central Committee, in which he was essentially asking him to resign. She was the first of the PASoK MPs to demand the resignation of Mr. G. Papandreou: “He is ignorant of the situation” he had said.
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