POLITICS IN PASOK
Sep 20th, 2007 by admin
The ruckus in the opposition party is dominating headlines in Greece. It’s become so dirty that the hope of settling it relatively peacefully seems farfetched. A minute after George Papandrew made his first speech conceding defeat to New Democracy, Evangelos Venizelos came out and made his and both took calm swipes at each other. Though they didn’t name each other, the message was easy to read in-between the lines. Venizelos suggested that Papandrew was no longer president of the party and was a candidate for the presidency which was a big insult to Papandrew.
Nick Malkoutzis, deputy editor of the English Katheimerini, on the apparent swing away from Papandrew:
Within PASOK itself, there appears to be a swing away from Mr. Papandrew at the moment with about forty MPS or so declaring their support either on or off the record for Venizelos. That’s quite a sizeable chuck. Regardless, the Papandrew camp is upset with two television channels running opinion polls both suggesting that Venizelos is a far more popular candidate or a potential leader of the party than Papandrew and the momentum seems to be with him. This pretty much upset the Papandrew camp, particularly because they feel some section of the media are perhaps trying to manipulate the situation.
DO YOU SEE PAPANDREW STEPPING DOWN?
It’s a tough one, I won’t like to speculate, and it’s difficult enough to decipher the information that we have. It’s quite possible I suppose that from the Venizelos camp they would want him to get in as quickly as possible because they fear if they let it lie for a few days, momentum will be lost. If we go back to how Papandrew took over the leadership there was a feeling then that Venizelos obviously had aspirations four years ago, he was bypassed and he doesn’t want the same to happen again, he wants people to know he is there and ready to be party leader.
VENIZELOS HAS CHALLENGED PAP ANDREW TO A TELEVISION DEBATE, DO YOU SEE THAT HAPPENING?
Not really, I don’t think the Papandrew camp wants it at all and to be honest a lot of people are saying why should there be a television debate, we just had one for the national elections. This is completely an internal matter for PASOK and not something that should be put on National television.
HOW DO YOU SEE THIS ENDING?
The momentum seems to be with Venizelos, it’s a question now of how the process happens. The political council of PASOK will be meeting over the weekend and they will have to call an extraordinary council were both sides will put forward their opinions and views on things. A third candidate may emerge or Papandrew may step aside and this could mean that some one else will decide to run in his place.