Party cadres challenge PASOK’s leader
Citing result in European vote, senior officials challenge Androulakis, call for election this year
The rumbling since Sunday’s European election – in which socialist PASOK remained stranded in third place, with only a slight increase in its percentage – was finally given voice on Wednesday by senior party official Odysseas Konstantinopoulos, who openly raised the issue of Nikos Androulakis’ leadership, calling for the immediate launch of procedures leading to elections for a leader in 2024.
He was followed shortly afterward by Nikos Papandreou, who moved in the same direction, and the issue quickly gained traction, with successive senior PASOK executives coming out openly in favor of a leadership election by the end of December.
In his letter to the members of the Political Council, which will meet early next week, Konstantinopoulos stated that “this is the third election under the current leadership, and the picture in urban centers is the same terms of percentages.” He urged a specific timetable for the emergence of leadership by the end of this year.
PASOK headquarters on Harilaou Trikoupi Street reacted by stating that the timetable will be adhered to according to the statute, which provides for leadership elections in the autumn of 2025.
People within Androulakis’ circle reportedly spoke of a climate that has already been in the making for some time now and that the groundwork for this challenge was prepared long before the elections.
They noted that while ruling New Democracy and main opposition SYRIZA experienced considerable losses, attention is being diverted to PASOK as if it is the party with the problem, when, in fact, it managed to increase its share of the vote.
Names of potential leadership contenders have been mentioned, but none has put their cards on the table by officially declaring they are going to be a candidate.
Manolis Christodoulakis, who was thought to be positioning himself against Androulakis when he participated in an event months ago to form a front of progressive forces, has reportedly told associates that he is seriously considering it.
Others emerging as potential contenders are Pavlos Geroulanos and Pavlos Christidis, who were candidates in 2021, and Athens Mayor Haris Doukas, with many voices claiming that the model of cooperation deployed for his ascension to the mayoral post can be transferred to the central political scene.
