“From the land where the ‘Old Man’ of democracy was born, from the homeland of our founder Andreas Papandreou, we send a message of victory from one end of the country to the other. This proud democratic faction that marked the post-colonial years with its dynamic presence is being reborn on May 21 and we are asking for a strong mandate of victory, change, perspective and hope for every Greek woman and for every Greek man.”

This was emphasized, among others, by the president of PASOK-KINAL, Nikos Androulakis, speaking tonight at an open political gathering held on the pedestrian street of Agios Nikolaos, in the center of Patras.

As he added, “we are coming back together, renewed against those who even today, after the bankruptcy of the Karamanli government, remain unrepentant, populizing, dividing, creating a toxic climate in the public debate”.

“So today”, he continued, “we are determined to win the battle on May 21 for the sake of the Greek people and especially the middle class and the most vulnerable Greeks who need changes to defend their daily life, to face the problems and dead ends” . At the same time, he said that “we have a duty to make the country a strong European country, with a durable social state, with sustainable development, with a strong democracy, because these have always been our historical priorities and we will achieve this again on May 21”.

In his speech, Nikos Androulakis launched an attack against the president of ND and the president of SYRIZA – PS, saying that “we are not the party of where it comes from and where we are going, but we are the party of the specific, the program, the real progress and not the toxicity, the populism of Mr. Tsipras and the clientelistic elitism of Mr. Mitsotakis, that is why we are asking for a strong mandate, so that division, arrogance, authoritarianism and the client state become a thing of the past.”

“The time has come,” he added, “for a new wind of change to blow again, from one end to the other of our country, overturning the relationships that hold hostage every democrat, every progressive Greek and that above all lead to the de-Hellenization of the Greek economy” .

Afterwards, the president of PASOK – KINAL said that “powerful financial interests and the domestic oligarchy threaten the danger of anarchy” and added: “What will PASOK do, they say, will it leave an ungoverned country? There is no risk of anarchy. After every election, a government always emerges. The question is does the government serve the terrorists of the oligarchy, or the real problems of the Greek people in their daily lives? In the last few days, Mr. Tsipras and Mr. Mitsotakis are doing an auction of benefits, trying to buy the conscience even of the new generation. So I call on every young person in the country to turn their back on the contempt of the right for the real problems of the Greek youth, which cannot be solved with the 150 euros of Mr. Mitsotakis. One asks us to forget what he did and to vote for SYRIZA again, without having said a word of apology for co-governing with the far-right Mr. Kammenos, while he said left the first time. But the first time left was only in 1981. The other asks you to forget everything, corruption, Tempi, wiretapping, direct assignments and tells you to be afraid that SYRIZA is coming and vote ND. The message from all of us here today from Achaia is to vote for PASOK so that both of them can go home.”

Continuing the attack against the president of ND and the president of SYRIZA – PS, Nikos Androulakis said that “they despise our political culture” and added: “No more discounting of democratic principles, no more erosion of constitutional institutions, no more trivialization of parliamentary morals. They are the ones who, with the parastatal on the internet, crush the dignity of whoever they think stands in their way. From your own money, from your own conditions, SYRIZA and ND have set up their digital parastate, which said that I am an agent when they were watching me during our democratic processes. And a girl who reported her abuse, became a victim in the ‘teeth’ of this parastatal”.

He also stated that “trust means justice, but justice for everyone, not just for the few, for those who feel that whatever they do, they will always go unpunished”. “And I say this”, he continued, “because Mr. Tsipras also has maximum audacity, because I don’t know another party, European, supposedly progressive, that condemns the former prime minister’s closest associate 13-0 by the special court and instead of he goes home to decorate the SYRIZA ballots too.”

“What does this behavior of theirs prove”, he said then and noted: “When they say justice everywhere, they mean for all of us, but not for them, for their close friends, for their relatives, as Mr. Mitsotakis did with his nephew of him, Dimitriadis, protagonist of the eavesdropping and the parastatal of 2023”.

At another point in his speech, Nikos Androulakis said that “I can’t help but dwell on the issue of wiretapping, because we were really surprised by Mr. Mitsotakis at the political leaders’ debate” adding: “For months, ND executives have been leaving poisonous insinuations. I was being watched because I was an agent of China, Turkey, Armenia and various other imaginative scenarios. Yesterday the prime minister said something very simple. That I was never a national danger. I did not expect a stamp of national views from the leader of the ND. But with this statement, the prosecutor now has a duty to call Ms. Vlachou and tell her, what did you sign for national reasons, Mr. Vlachou? Why the narrative of legal surveillance, otherwise politically incorrect, collapsed in the debate. It was illegal surveillance, despicable for a European country. Therefore, I will fight to the end for Greek and European justice, not for me, but for democracy and all of you. It’s not a personal issue, it’s a question of the country’s dignity and credibility abroad.”

Referring to the German reparations, he said that “today, the viciousness, arrogance and sadness of the Mitsotakis system exceeded all limits”, adding: “I say this because a few days ago I was in the martyred Kalavryta. I insisted on the need for the German reparations, as decided by the Greek Parliament on April 17, 2019, through a specific framework that all parties have a duty to fight for, to give justice to the heroes who fought against Nazism. I did not expect one of Mr. Mitsotakis’s closest collaborators to say that these things belong to the past. Mr. Mitsotakis and his entourage, who despise even the gigantic struggles of the Greek people and their sacrifices, in the difficult years of the occupation, will belong to the past in a few days.”

During his speech, Nikos Androulakis referred to the founder of PASOK, Andreas Papandreou, saying that “I cannot, here in Patras, not respond to the vileness about the political legacy of Andreas Papandreou” and added: “Andreas Papandreou fought the right and maintenance. Stop all discrimination, political, social, religious, class. We do not invoke the name of Andreas Papandreou occasionally, because it is our history, it is our DNA, it is our struggles, it is our faith. But I hear some people say that Andreas Papandreou inspires them. Whatever they say, because they have a habit of falsifying history, they cannot rewrite the country’s recent history. Because Andreas fought the right and brought the progressive democratic left to the fore, in 1981. He is the leader, who, thanks for being told, was together to take it to the special court. That’s why we don’t forget our history, no matter how much they try to falsify it.”

Concluding his speech, Nikos Androulakis underlined that “here, from Patras, the message is clear, PASOK has returned as a protagonist in the political foreground of Greek history”.