PASOK MP Odysseas Konstantinopoulos has raised the issue of leadership in PASOK in a letter to the party secretary.

“Our party’s goal of coming second in the European elections was not achieved,” he said in his letter, calling for the acceleration of the procedures for the election of a president from the party’s base by the end of 2024.

“We need a strong reboot! A new strong legitimising mandate to make the great PASOK of our aspirations a reality, with leadership that mobilises broader social forces,” he says and goes on to say: “I therefore call for the governing bodies of PASOK to convene immediately, within the next week, and decide on the 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 emergence of our politicians and the election of our collective bodies are completed.”

In his letter, Odysseas Constantinopoulos speaks of a “Restart of leadership, political and organisational importance for PASOK and the great party of the centre-left!”.

The PASOK MP for Arcadia and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament also opens up the issue of the wider centre-left, calls for an immediate convocation of the party’s organs and attempts a first analysis of the election result, acknowledging that there are people with leadership ambitions in the party – “and rightly so”.

“Friends. The time has come to face the truth. Not with evasions, but with a real perspective. Only then will we see clearly the future of the party. “KKE of the Centre” or a government proposal that will rally broader forces and become a majority”, the PASOK MP concludes.

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The entire letter of Odysseus Konstantinopoulos:

Athens, 12 June 2024

Dear Secretary

Friends of the Political Council

A few days after the European elections, I decided to share some thoughts with you about the future of the party.

Without personal anxiety about the future, but with anxiety for the party.

The messages of the European elections were clear to everyone.

– Not only did New Democracy not achieve its goal, but the election result was for it a message of disapproval for its policies and behaviour. What keeps it alive is that the opposition parties have not convinced the people.

– Mr Kasselakis’s party, which after the departure of members was polling in the single digits, recorded a 14.9% share in the European elections, having a different political audience that has nothing to do with the progressive world.

– The far-right as a whole outnumbers the second party in terms of numbers, “trapping” 700,000 people, and is preparing to follow the path of other far-right parties in Europe towards power.

The party fought another crucial electoral battle. And it did so with a clear political stake: that PASOK – refusing to be trapped in the political enclosure of a party of protest or sterile negativism, i.e. to turn into a “KKE of the centre” – as its president N. Androulakis had aptly pointed out – is seeking to look ND in the eye from a perspective, and with the next parliamentary elections on the horizon, and to present a convincing alternative proposal for the governance of the country.

Allow me a brief analysis of the figures from 2015:

In January 2015 in the National Elections our party receives 4.7% (with 290,000 votes) and everyone is talking about the end of PASOK.

But in the National Elections in September 2015 it receives 6.3% (with 342,000 votes, i.e. 52,000 more votes).

In the National Elections of July 2019, PASOK with 8.1% increased its voters by 115,000 compared to 2015 to 458,000 (an increase of 34%) when SYRIZA lost 145,000 voters, while New Democracy also massively increased its voters by 725,000 reaching 2,250,000 voters.

In the 2023 elections we had another increase which confirms the steady upward trend of the party, as we again got a double-digit percentage.

However, the 160,000 additional voters in June 2023 compared to 2019 fall far short of the 851,000 voters who left SYRIZA and the 136,000 who left New Democracy, who in total add up to 1 million voters.

Moreover, it is highly problematic that in the European elections PASOK lost 168,000 voters.

When New Democracy and Syriza lost 50% of their voters, about 2 million.

New Democracy lost about 1.3 million voters from the 2.4 million voters in May 2023.

SYRIZA lost about 592,000 voters from 1 million 184 thousand voters in May 2023.

The marginal increase of 0.95% is not underestimated by anyone. But it does not in any way indicate a trend that will acquire majority characteristics.

This is the third election under the current leadership in which urban centres have the same picture in terms of percentages.

The intervention of parties in urban centres is mainly through the central political image they project and cannot be covered only organisationally. The campaign, the slogan and in which media you reproduce it is of great importance.

Our party’s goal of second place in the European elections was not achieved. The big stakes remain?

Of course. It is the political obligation of all progressive citizens, of all the most actively involved cadres, and even more so of the structured and historically politically charged places like PASOK, to continue to insist that:

– The Greeks, our country and our democracy deserve a different counter-proposal of governance in terms of its sign and priorities.

– We cannot allow the coordinated evolution of the political systems of the majority of European countries, which has made the extreme right, intolerance and Euroscepticism the dominant forces, to take place in our country as well. We will not allow the far right to face the far right, and there is no time to lose.

The party must make use of the political time and not waste it until the national elections. PASOK has procedures for leadership elections in 2025. At the same time, there must be provision for expansion in the centre-left space.

– The expansion and the unification of forces in the space of the centre-left must have grassroots characteristics that will unite it. Progressive and patriotic policies.

– Enlargement is not an addition of numbers, percentages or MPs that contradict the fresh popular will.

– To succeed, it must be based on principles and values. Otherwise, it risks appearing as a ‘chairs’ agreement.

I would like to make it clear that for me, Mr Kasselakis has nothing to do with the centre-left. However, there are dozens of central level executives and thousands at the grassroots level that we could “walk” together.

Most importantly, there are the more than 2 million citizens who did not go to vote and they are the people of the centre, all the way to the renewal left.

All of this, to happen, needs clear solutions, but also leadership that has time ahead of it.

Let’s be honest, there are cadres, who rightly exist, and have ambitions to lead in PASOK and the centre-left. It has happened in the past, it is happening now. We know that a long election period would create introversion.

With my proposal, the leadership that will be chosen will have all the time in front of it to advance the processes with the fresh will of the people.

I would like to recall the example of Fofi Gennimata who was elected in July 2015 and in an effort to grow the party, she put her mandate after 2 years in November 2017 at the disposal of the people, with the participation of then President Nikos Androulakis, while she had a positive, for the time, result of 6.29%, from 4.6%.

Today, it is imperative that we do not let the waters stagnate and stagnate.

We need a strong reboot! A new strong legitimising mandate to make the great PASOK of our aspirations a reality, with leadership that mobilises broader social forces.

I therefore call for the organs of PASOK to convene immediately, within the next week, and to decide on a specific timetable: That the electoral procedures for the leadership of the party, foreseen in the statutes for 2025, 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 bodies are completed.

Restart leadership, political, organisational, for PASOK and the great party of the centre-left!

Friends,

The time has come to face the truth. Not with evasions, but with a real perspective. Only then will we see clearly the future of the party. “KKE of the Centre” or a government proposal that will rally broader forces and become a majority.

The choice is in our hands

Odysseas Konstantinopoulos