“It is inappropriate, I don’t want to follow up,” Charis Dukas told ANT1 when asked to comment on Nikos Androulakis‘s remark when during the debate he compared him to Erdogan, in terms of his centralization of powers.
And responding “to the essence” of the issue of the double role of mayor and party chairman, he said that, “a mayor can be president and if people want him to be president, prime minister, because the institution of local government is strengthened, it has the character of strengthening local government.”
Asked “why anyone would vote for Duke”, he replied, “The ‘I’ is over, the ‘we’ makes the difference. We want a PASOK and it will be a Movement and its members will have a role. That’s what I did in Athens, for the first time we have 26 councilors in Athens and everyone has a role. That’s what I want to do with PASOK.”
He added that “we forgot about those who came to vote for PASOK, we have to give them a voice, to feel active wherever they are in the country.”
“In Athens, we managed to get 56% on the second Sunday and created an agenda for progress. We are making a big call to all progressives. We want a great PASOK and not a PASOK that is the butter on Mitsotakis’ bread,” he said about his vision for the party.
As for the government and its attitude, he said “Overall, it is a government that is dismissive of local government and I am not saying that, the KEDE is saying that. For the country to move forward, it must change its model of governance and the economic model that produces super profits for a few.”
On the process of electing the president of PASOK – Movement for Change, he said, “there should have been more ballot boxes. It’s e EDECAP, I don’t want to interfere.”
“PASOK came out a winner overall, all the lights are on us, the government is wearing out, SYRIZA is fighting each other, PASOK is here,” he assessed yesterday’s debate between the six contenders for the leadership of PASOK, and when asked about the next day after the election of a new president, he replied that there will be unity, without this meaning “retreat”.
Finally, expressing his political lines, he referred to the problem of the housing solution, for which he supports the European norm “10% of buildings should be social housing”, public education and health care, while he referred, as he did yesterday, to the public character that PPC should have, proposing fixed tariffs for two years.
“So that we can support energy and citizens. Draghi said the priority is financially viable energy,” he concluded.