PASOK Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, presiding over a party that is evaporating in polls because of unrelenting support for austerity measures that are antithetical to its founding principles, said there is no alternative to the coalition government led by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader.
The tiny Democratic Left, which is falling faster than PASOK and in danger of going below the 3 percent threshold needed to win seats in Parliament, is the other partner in the co-operation government and has followed Samaras’ orders as well, including backing pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions.
Venizelos gave his remarks as he wound up the party’s 9th Constitutional Congress which drew only about 3,000 people, a far cry from the hundreds of thousands that used to turn out when the party’s founder Andreas Papandreou took to the streets decades ago. PASOK has fallen from 44 percent support when it won the 2009 elections under then-leader George Papandreou, who was hounded out of office in 2011, to less than 7 percent now.
According to the news agency AMNA, he told the elegates that “PASOK emerges from the Congress optimistic and strong, having achieved its total restoration,” without explaining how they jibed with the record low support for the party. He said Greece must continue to obey the orders of the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) that is putting up $325 billion in two bailouts but demanded harsh conditions.
Responding to delegates΄ comments why he’s been submissive to Samaras, Venizelos categorically rejected the party΄s non-participation or a reduction of its existing participation, saying the government needs to stay a full four-year term, which would keep him involved in it as well. There is no alternative solution other than the government of cooperation of the three parties, warning that “no one toys” with such matters, he said.
Addressing an audience that included Papandreou, who took time away from teaching at Columbia University in New York to come back, Venizelos said he would keep giving Samaras his support so that the government could endure. He told dissidents that he would not distance himself from the goverment’s policies of austerity, which have created a record 27 percent unemployment.
He also said that New Democracy would prefer a vote of tolerance in the government from PASOK and unconditional support. “We must formulate the conditions of a minimum national understanding with the opposition too, even in conditions of aggravated tension and quasi- civil conflict,” he added. He added that the next task is to get the country of its six-year recession, although the government’s policies are making it worse.
He again called for the Democratic Left to merge with PASOK but didn’t say if he wanted to rule the combined party and not his rival Fotis Kouvelis. He said he wants to create a unified Left to oppose the major opposition party the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) which opposes austerity.
Venizelos said that PASOK is a socialist, democratic, politically liberal, reformist, European, nationally responsible, ecologically-sensitive, actively patriotic and popular party but nonetheless backs the Conservative agenda. A party leader said Venizelos was totally satisfied with the meeting and its unanimous support for all his actions as no challengers arose.
The number of members on the central committee could reach a maximum of 180, as the 130 elected members will be joined by emeritus members that include the 28 party MPs initially elected to Parliament in the May, 2012 elections but not re-elected in June΄s repeat elections, the former party leaders, and Presidents of PASOK΄s tertiary organizations. The emeritus members do not include PASOK΄s Eurodeputies.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
