PASOK President Nikos Androulakis announced elections for the party presidency on October 6th and October 13th during the Central Political Committee meeting on Sunday. The PASOK leader said he will seek the renewal of his mandate by the party’s grassroots membership.
As for the procedures, Androulakis said that three weeks prior to elections, there will be an open Central Political Committee meeting where all candidates will present their political positions. The pertinent party organs will decide on procedural details, and candidates will take part in a televised debate.
The background on the PASOK presidency elections
PASOK came out of the June 9th European Parliament elections performing poorly, causing voters and MPs alike to doubt the abilities and leadership skills of party President Nikos Androulakis.
Prior to elections, Androulakis had appeared optimistic PASOK would overtake main opposition party Syriza. Androulakis believed his party could take advantage of the crisis Syriza faces. Syriza fared even worse—losing three percentage points compared to the 2023 national election—but PASOK also didn’t do much better.
Specifically, the comparison to the 2023 national election results to this year’s for the European Parliament show PASOK faring below expectations in percentage of the total vote (2023/2024 comparison: ND 40.56/28.31, PASOK 11.84/12.79 percent, Syriza 17.83/14.92).
The contestants of the upcoming elections
Androulakis repeatedly hinted at the contestants to the PASOK presidency undermining him, and through him, the party itself. He spoke of the “lack of ethics” of certain party members and stated he would not allow some “to use the party as a negotiating tool to satisfy their overweening ambitions,” referring to the proposal of a PASOK-Syriza coalition.
The two contestants for the center-left party leadership are Athens Mayor Charis Doukas and former culture minister and veteran PASOK MP Pavlos Geroulanos.
Charis Doukas took the podium saying he agrees on the election date and would not leave his post as Athens mayor if elected.
Doukas stressed he is the one who beat the New Democracy mayoral candidate, Costas Bakogiannis in the 2023 municipal election. He asked for party members’ trust, promising that he would lead them to victory.
Geroulanos spoke about building a strong, progressive party that would serve society, based on the old PASOK values. He said that a revived, renewed PASOK could be the next government in Greece.
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