A scene of open questioning of the leadership’s ability to achieve its political goals in the next elections seems to be taking shape in PASOK, while executives and MPs are still waiting for an announcement from Harilaou Trikoupis on the day of the convening of the Political Council and other party organs.

The demand for speeding up the procedures and setting up a ballot box for the leadership election by the end of the year still runs up against the invocation of the statute that provides for the election of a leader in the autumn of 2015. Executives who consider it imperative to discuss “here and now” in the institutions adopt the proposal of Odysseus Konstantinopoulos, which he described through a letter to the Secretary and members of the Political Council, while on the contrary, associates of Nikos Androulakis stress that the “chorus” of interventions undermines the party’s image in the new starting point.

The assessment of the election result remains an open issue; everyone agrees that it should be done in the party’s organs, but Charilaou Trikoupis avoids officially announcing what it nevertheless tells its interlocutors that: next Wednesday, the Political Council will meet first (possibly together with the parliamentary group, as the Secretary of the CO, Litsa Liaculis, had proposed to the leader of PASOK from the first moment) and then, before the end of the month, the Central Committee, which is called upon to take, as the highest body, the final decisions. The current leadership has most of the members close to it, but the demand of those seeking quick initiatives can be activated by the collection of signatures of 1/3 of the Central Committee members.

PASOK’s leader has avoided public interventions since the Sunday of the European elections; he may wait until more and more members put their cards on the table first and he can then take a stand. In any case, PASOK’s failure to achieve its declared goal of second place in the June 9 polls has ‘wounded’ the collective self-confidence of PASOK for the course of the ‘next day’ and has caused great concern for the future. Nikos Androulakis is said to give a hint of his intentions on Monday, perhaps through an interview, which will be the first since the European elections and will precede his introduction at the Political Council meeting.

What are the scenarios? The president and his “allies” manage to give an extension to the top “pending” issue of organising an election, which according to the statute cannot be held before the autumn of 2025. One of the arguments heard from Harilaou Trikoupis executives is that PASOK should focus on confronting the government and even prepare for an electoral surprise by Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Sources note that the argument is best answered by the view that PASOK should mobilise now, choose how it wants to proceed and be ready for any eventuality. This scenario is largely ‘identical’ to the proposal of Odysseus Konstantinopoulos.

“We need a strong reboot! A new strong legitimizing mandate to make the great PASOK of our aspirations a reality, with leadership that mobilizes broader social forces”, Konstantinopoulos says and explains his rationale for a restart of leadership, politics and organization in the party : “I ask, therefore, immediately, within the next week, that the organs of PASOK convene and decide on a specific timetable: The statutory election procedures for the leadership of the party, foreseen for 2025, to be accelerated, so that by the end of this year, both these and the subsequent Congress for the nomination of our politicians and the election of our collective organs are completed”.

Nadia Giannakopoulou, Pavlos Geroulanos and other MPs, MEP Nikos Papandreou, Theodoros Margaritis and Yannis Meimaroglou from the Political Council, as well as other executives from the basin and the region, have supported Mr Konstantinopoulos’ proposal. The one-point increase in the percentage is considered a slow and tortuous though upward development and therefore the need to speed up the procedures is, as executives say, imperative. George Papandreou has not yet expressed his intentions, but it is estimated that he currently wants to avoid a public intervention and confrontation with Nikos Androulakis.

In the next few hours or days Manolis Christodoulakis, whose name is on the list of possible candidates for leadership, will be appointed. The name of Pavlos Geroulanos and Harry Doukas are also in the same frame. These three persons are increasingly being heard that they will – most likely – be in the front row as candidate leaders. Like them, Nikos Androulakis is “weighing” the gravity of each step and trying to guess the condition of the final duel and its duo.

“The strategic, political and psychological goal was to be the second party. We are not where we want to be,” says Pavlos Geroulanos. Speaking about Konstantinopoulos’ letter to Parapolitika 90.1, he said that “Mr. Konstantinopoulos sent a letter saying that instead of waiting for ’25, to restart, to bring it early, so that anyone, either the current president or a new one, has the time to build these three things, so that he can stand against a SYRIZA and a ND that seem weakened; it is a proposal that I think strengthens PASOK, not weakens it.” Konstantinopoulos’ proposal is also described as “welcome” by Nadia Giannakopoulou, who left open the possibility of running in the leadership race, but those in the know say that what he is really seeking is an answer to the question within the institutions as to how PASOK moved and lost its goal, and therefore the role of the opposition, where SYRIZA remains. “Listen, I will take a position, as I always do, I will take a position in the institutions. We put the issues to the institutions. I believe that this is the time, freely to express everything. With a magnanimity on the part of everyone with a sobriety and calmness and with respect for everyone. Everything should be expressed, everything should be put on the table, to discuss all those who are anxious about anything and the minor and major issues, all issues, “said the secretary of the Parliamentary Group of the party Litsa Liakouli, while Harris Castanides advocated the acceleration of the election procedures, adding that “when a leader fails, he must have the ambition to resign.” Speaking to Blue Sky, Castanides insisted adding that: “Since there is a question of leadership in PASOK, I think that this pending issue must be cleared quickly because the major issue is the reconstitution of the progressive space as a whole.”

Nadia Giannakopoulou, referring to the comment of Nikos Androulakis’ circles, wondered whether “anything discussed in the institutions is introversion? Introversion is discussing for 1.5 years what can be done, what will be done and what we will change”. She fires shots at Panagiotis Doudonis who had accused her of making prefabricated statements, calls him an “appointed MP” as he has been elected without a “cross” on the State election ticket and stresses that all issues should be discussed in the institutions. Pavlos Christides argues that “discussing personal ambitions is something that serves no one at this stage”; he obviously means that the right choice is to elect a leadership in the autumn of 2015, as Harilaou Trikoupis reminds us, citing the statute. Christides, however, has already contested the leadership against Nikos Androulakis in 2021, and it is possible that he will do so again. “The important thing for PASOK is to form a great party that incorporates all the major political and social movements. Everything else will be discussed in the context of the internal dialogue. I would not like to throw water on the mill in a debate that is shaping problems,” Christides stressed.

Panagiotis Paraskevaidis, the MP for Lesvos noted that “there is a need for a deep analysis of the election result in the party’s organs with sobriety, seriousness and self-criticism and not to ostrich and create excessive ambitions in general”. “We are not satisfied with the percentage but all this should be discussed within the organs and then we should find a way to confront it. It has to be done internally,” he added. “The proposal to go soon to the election of a leader and coordinated procedures is correct,” said Theodoros Margaritis, a member of the PASOK Political Council, while a statement in favour of Nikos Androulakis was made by former Speaker of the Parliament and historical member of PASOK, Apostolos Kaklamanis, stressing that: “The unity of PASOK is unbroken, forged through its struggles and guaranteed by its statutes”.