More than 300,000 members and friends of the socialist party PASOK voted in the first round of the leadership election on Sunday with results showing that current leader Nikos Androulakis and Mayor of Athens Haris Doukas will fight it out in the second round.
Androulakis came first with 29.6 percent followed by Doukas at 21.4 percent. Pavlos Geroulanos, with 21.1 percent was third, just 850 votes behind Doukas, followed by Anna Diamantopoulou with 19.52 percent. Michalis Katrinis gained 6 percent of the vote and Nadia Giannakopoulou 2.3 percent.
Androulakis sent a message of unity and thanked the hundreds of thousands of citizens “who honored us with their participation, filled us with hope and strength.”
“I want to thank my fellow candidates because we had an election campaign with a truly political culture, with ethics and seriousness, I want to thank from the bottom of my heart those who honored me with today’s victory. There are seven days left until next Sunday when I am sure that PASOK will come out even more united and even stronger, even prouder,” he added.
“The message of the ballot box is clear, 70 percent call for a change of leadership”, said Haris Doukas and added, “I invite you on Sunday to make the great breakthrough together. Let’s change PASOK to change the country.”
The leadership election was caused by a widespread view within the party expressed by several candidates who openly doubted the abilities of Androulakis to steer the party to first place.
Each candidate vowed that he or she was the only one who could beat Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The New Democracy President is seeing his administration losing points mainly due to inflation, the wildfires his Ministry of Civil Protection failed to contain, and the Tempi train wreck tragedy that left 57 dead.
PASOK is second in the opinion polls
PASOK, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, is currently second in the opinion polls, overtaking Syriza. However, it is still far behind the governing New Democracy (ND) party led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The Socialist party has greatly changed since its inception on September 3, 1974. Today, the party that radically changed Greek politics when it came to power in October 1981 is a former shadow of itself. Under the leadership of Andreas Papandreou, it was the first Socialist party that governed Greece with Papandreou gaining the love of most Greeks.
By 2010, when Andreas Papandreou’s son, George Papandreou, was prime minister, Greece was wallowing in an economic crisis. In a snap election, PASOK lost, and two years later after political turmoil, a coalition New Democracy-PASOK government was formed. The two political arch-rivals since 1974 joined forces, an unprecedented event.
Related: Six Candidates for PASOK Leadership at the Starting Line
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