Tough times for main opposition parties
SYRIZA, PASOK consumed with intraparty squabbles ahead of congress, leadership contest
A fragmented opposition, with left-wing SYRIZA and socialist PASOK close together in a contest for second place, was the saving grace for ruling center-right New Democracy after dropping more than 12 percentage points in June’s European Parliament election, compared with its national election score just 12 months prior. Even as it dropped, it nearly doubled the score of its closest opponent.
Now both opposition parties are consumed with internal squabbles, with top party cadres questioning the leadership of SYRIZA’s Stefanos Kasselakis and PASOK’s Nikos Androulakis, while also fighting among themselves, especially in the case of the socialists.
The internal turmoil may not be resolved until SYRIZA’s congress and PASOK’s leadership contest, both scheduled for early October, and may persist beyond that, providing further breathing space for New Democracy.
In SYRIZA, the expulsion of controversial and combustible MP Pavlos Polakis from the party’s parliamentary group has so far not calmed the waters: eight high-ranking members of the party, who also oppose Kasselakis, have asked that he be stripped of membership of the party’s top bodies, as well. “If his dismissal from the parliamentary group is not immediately accompanied by his removal from the party’s leading bodies and his referral to the Ethics Commission, we will completely lose our credibility with public opinion,” they said.
Kasselakis told the parliamentary group that “he felt bad” about his decision to discipline Polakis “whom I love.” “Love is not enough,” Polakis responded.
Inside PASOK, the seven remaining leadership candidates are attacking what they perceive as each other’s weak points. Current leader Nikos Androulakis is being taken to task for the modest gains in the European election and the failure to overtake SYRIZA for second place.
Athens Mayor Haris Doukas is being blasted both for wishing to become partly leader while he has been mayor for just over six months and for his declaration that, if elected PASOK leader, he would remain in both posts.
Pavlos Geroulanos, the only socialist MP from the central Athens constituency, is blamed for the party’s below average score there. He and fellow candidate Nadia Giannakopoulou, elected in the suburbs, counter that the low scores reflect the leader’s popularity.
