PASOK Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, who has taken his party to 5 percent in the polls and would be powerless if he hadn’t agreed to back austerity measures to become the Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister in the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader, said he’s doing a great job.
Under hard questioning from party officials who fear PASOK – which got 44 percent of the vote when it won the 2009 elections – will dissolve as a party because Venizelos has aligned himself with the fading Conservatives as well, Venizelos insisted that his support for Samaras is saving the country.
That came as several of his Members of Parliament raised questions about the party’s future and Venizelos’s leadership during a meeting of the party’s central political committee. They were anxious that PASOK won’t do well in the May, 2014 European Parliament elections and local elections.
Major opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) leader Alexis Tsipras said the ruling parties will be repudiated and that his Leftists, who opposed the terms of bailouts from international lenders propping up the economy will come to power.
If elections are held and PASOK, which would already be irrelevant if Venizelos hadn’t backed austerity to join the government, falls below the 3 percent threshold needed to enter Parliament, the once-proud and once-dominant party founded by former Premier Andreas Papandreou four decades ago will disappear.
“The narrative is not working out and PASOK is in danger of foundering on the rocks if we do not change course,” said Thanos Moraitis.
Others, including former Finance Minister Filippos Sachinidis and ex-party secretary Michalis Karchimakis, also called for Venizelos to rethink PASOK’s strategy.
Venizelos responded by insisting that PASOK was vital to the country exiting the crisis. He also pledged to be innovative in terms of the party’s strategy for the European elections and to draw up candidate lists in a “democratic and transparent” manner. He didn’t explain what either of those meant or what the strategy was other than continuing to support austerity.
He insisted, though, that the government’s popularity was larger than “is visible to the naked eye.”
The coalition, however, that included the Democratic Left (DIMAR) which has since left, has gone from 179 votes in the 300-member Parliament to only a three-vote majority of 153, leaving New Democracy and PASOK with a combined 25 percent of the vote in the most recent survey in which SYRIZA showed to be pulling away.
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!
