By Manolis Kapsis
I don’t know if Sir Starmer’s victory in the UK elections has caused PASOK’s appetite, it is certainly a cause for hope, if we judge at least from the presidential candidates who reached the 8 that they would have life. Anna Diamantopoulou also announced her candidacy yesterday.
The truth is that many saw behind Labour’s victory to disprove the theory of Europe’s ultra-right turn and rushed to study the Starmer phenomenon. In particular (let’s say again) he did not increase his percentages impressively, but enough to win almost all single seat constituencies (that is the electoral system in Great Britain), against the Conservatives who came down divided, with Farage stealing 14% critical. .
After all, copying is fashionable. Here some are trying to unseat the new Front Populaire in France – although the Front is probably not doing well already, considering that it is unable to agree with the Prime Minister and the proposed government program – the will Starmer be nailed? Which between us, he didn’t do anything particularly original. Tony Blair had done it before, and it was successful. He turned the party back to the center and claimed the moderate vote. (Let them see this also in New Democracy a propos).
Personally, what impressed me the most was that the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, throughout the transformation of the Labor party from an ultra-left party to a party of power, stubbornly refused to bow to the sirens of the keep and he did not promise. everything to everyone, as usual in Greece. In fact, he had the courage to say no, even to the requests of the hard workers in the National Health System who were tested and even just before the elections. It didn’t hurt him to catch the result. Social sensitivity was the rule he served, but with fiscal strictness, and he served this rule to the end.
After all, the British electorate is wary of big and expensive promises, because big spending usually means new taxes. We know better. Sometimes they also bring memos…
Enter at this point Anna Diamantopoulou. None of the PASOK presidential candidates has a profile closer to that of the new British prime minister, at least in terms of views on the economy and reforms. The centrist profile, so to speak. Are these qualities – together with controllability – enough to put the former commissioner against him in the party’s internal elections?
Anna Diamantopoulou was not ready to be Mitsotakis’ Minister, is the usual counter-argument of those who respond to her candidacy, accusing her of right-wing deviation. Is this not what Haris Doukas means when he repeats during the campaign – which he has already started to beat Nikos Androulakis – that PASOK will not become the crack of New Democracy? (p. to be precise, it was Ms. Diamantopoulou who chose Kyriakos Mitsotakis for Greece to claim the OASA presidency and not participate in the government).
Will a PASOK voter vote for a leader, someone who “sorrows” the New Democracy? Or at least showed tolerance to return to normality, which was the story of Mitsotakis the first four years? Where did he go up to the bars for the wire-tapping?
Mrs. Diamantopoulos’ ventures have many difficulties. It will be a difficult process to reconnect with the PASOK party, which he has been away from for many years. There is a strong anti-reformist sentiment among the voters of the Movement and it is certain that the former education minister will take many hits below the belt. The internal party process can become ruthless and fratricidal. Let’s remember that some people “prosecuted” one of the presidential candidates, even the green trade unionists on the rampage, who were active in the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Athens…
Yes, the difficulties will be great, the assessments are very risky, but it is probably wrong to see the process as a race where some audience of PASOK voters scrutinize the candidates, measure how genuine PASOK each is, who how green is the candidate and votes accordingly. It is likely that which candidate will be able to beat Mitsotakis as a criterion…
I would like to say that the candidates will form the electorate. The electorate that will appear in the local elections to vote in October will be one thing, if the confrontation was between Nikos Androulakis and Haris Doukas, another community will participate in the party’s internal elections, if the battle is fought between Androulakis, Doukas and Anna. Diamantopoulou. Voters are a fluid quantity that will be shaped by the dynamics of the candidates.
The former commissioner addresses a centralized audience that has now moved to the New Democracy and wants to claim it. He wants social democracy to return to the fore and for PASOK to become the party of power. She had the seriousness, dedication and organization that distinguished her from the text of ideas and intent at first. I don’t know if he will succeed and if he will be a threat to the monopoly of Kyriakos Mitsotakis (he will have to win the hearts of the pasokos first), but now Stefanos Kasselakis’ store is retiring and the SYRIZA show is no longer shows available, he may find interest in the party kitchen again.