PASOK’s second chance

Given the different protagonists and characteristics of the two given times, it would seem somewhat excessive to draw similarities between PASOK’s heyday in 1981, when it gained such widespread popularity with its pledges for change, and the realistic possibility of the socialist party reclaiming its position in second place as the main contender for power against New Democracy today because of SYRIZA’s disintegration.

But, because things have a tendency to shrink as the decades go by, things like personalities and the historical stakes, the party founded by Andreas Papandreou with the promise of “national independence, popular rule and social justice” is now faced with a massive opportunity, its second big chance.

The waning popularity of Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government stemming from its failure to live up to expectations that it would address the problems of people’s day-to-day lives and improve living standards for the many, in combination with SYRIZA’s moral demise and shrinkage, could elevate PASOK to a political force that ensures stability and progress.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Greece’s next government will almost certainly be a coalition. Making sure that a far-right party (like Kyriakos Velopoulos’ Greek Solution or Afroditi Latinopoulou’s Patrida) is not part of that government will depend on the stance maintained by PASOK, whether it works with New Democracy as the junior but influential partner or beats the ruling conservatives by absorbing the scattered fragments of the center-left and left. This could happen with the creation of a new alliance or by taking in individuals and groups jumping ship at SYRIZA, or what’s left of the party since Alexis Tsipras left and Stefanos Kasselakis took over.

The party’s efforts to reinvent itself, a rebranding demanded by its devastating performance in 2015, when it plummeted to 4% of the vote from 44% in 2009, has created the conditions for a judicious comeback, without a repetition of the devastating and self-destructive mistakes of the past.

In this regard, the importance of the upcoming leadership race at PASOK transcends party boundaries.

Therefore, restricting the discussion inside the party to matters of procedure and organization, and to public bickering between the different camps, undermines the ability of a fortunate coincidence to become a historic opportunity that requires a sincere re-evaluation of the party’s goals, at the political level as much as in terms of its identity and culture.

PASOK bears a huge responsibility for the country’s economic and institutional collapse. It certainly contributed to strengthening democracy and the middle class, but it also established a political paradigm based on populism, clientelism and a proprietary attitude toward the state.

People who watched the Democratic National Convention in the United States felt what PASOK is lacking today: unity in the pursuit of a common goal that transcends personal ambitions, with well-developed positions on the fundamental social-democratic objective of protecting and modernizing the welfare state; it is the “something wonderfully magical in the air” former first lady Michelle Obama saw in the excitement of those gathered in Chicago in the hope and belief that they were striving for the good and the just.