The next steps are being planned in Charilaou Trikoupis by carefully reading the findings of the latest polls to discern the “points” on which to focus their “attack” from the beginning of the new year.

Productive opposition is the central choice of Nikos Androulakis, who is recorded as the most popular leader, while PASOK, despite a slight decline, is consolidating itself as the rival pole against New Democracy, trying to open up new pools of voters on both sides. Taking stock of the last two months, they see that PASOK has attempted and succeeded in setting the political agenda, highlighting the government’s ineptitude and failure to connect with other social groups. Charilaou Trikoupis executives also believe that the bimonthly meeting will also be beneficial for the emergence of an alternative proposal for governance as a whole, the programmatic parts of which will be presented in January.

Yesterday, in Pulse’s poll for SKAI, PASOK went from 12.8% to 17%, while in Metron Analysis’ gallop, ND is at 29.2% and PASOK at 17.4% (in the same company’s previous survey it was at 18.8%). In both polls, however, PASOK maintains the “image” of consolidating in second place in the field of the official opposition.

A warm welcome to Androulakis by socialist leaders

Meanwhile, yesterday’s European Socialist Party pre-summit confirmed the change of …track for PASOK, as the new dynamics of the party in recent months was – according to Harilaou Trikoupis executives – “the practical proof of the reversal of pasokification, the term that until recently meant the decline in the percentages and influence of social democratic parties”. Key figures of the social democrats, such as Antonio Costa (President of the European Council), Pedro Sanchez (Prime Minister of Spain), Stefan Leuven (President of the European Socialist Party), and Iratse Garcia Perret (Head of the S&D Group) gave a very warm welcome to Mr Androulakis at the Brussels Pre-Summit.

Their joint “go” even became the main photo posted by PES on its social media accounts. During the meeting, they congratulated him on his re-election and on PASOK’s upward trajectory in the polls. They were also positively impressed by the PASOK amendment on banks and the pressure on the government to take action. It is indicative that they included the relevant analysis in the European Socialists’ newsletter, where, among other things, it is noted that: “Thanks to the action of PASOK and its leader Nikos Androulakis, the Greek government is finally taking action to regulate bank commissions and protect its citizens. During the financial crisis, bank bailouts cost the Greek people tens of billions of euros. Currently, banks are making high profits due to the high charges on depositors and the huge gap between deposit and lending rates. It is time to support citizens and small and medium-sized enterprises and make banks play their role in financing and helping the economy to grow.”

Concern over Turkey’s leading role in Syria

Nikos Androulakis, who from the first days of the rapid developments in Syria had publicly expressed his concern about Turkey’s leading role in the region, reiterated that Greek diplomacy must work methodically and prevent the scenario of delimiting the EEZ between Syria and Turkey in the model of the illegal Turcolibian pact. PASOK officials add that their party will be in open line with other European Socialists, raising the issues of a unified foreign policy and defence of Europe.