By Antonis Anzoletou

On September 10, SYRIZA is invited to change the page and elect its new president. It was to be expected that it would not be an easy process, as the double electoral crash of May and June, as well as the upcoming municipal elections, did not leave much room for the party to carry out a political introspection and regroup its forces. The time he was left without a head showed that the leadership deficit cannot be prolonged. History has proven that after a painful defeat the changes must be “tectonic” and even touch the head of each party formation. This happened several times in New Democracy and PASOK, where there were enough conflicts.

Alexis Tsipras inaugurated in May 2022 the election of the president not by the delegates, but by the base of the party. George Papandreou was the first to pave the way for the election of a leader from the grassroots in 2004. The process was held on February 8 and the only candidate who claimed the presidency was the former prime minister. He collected 99.7% of the votes. 1,020,145 members and friends of the party took part in the elections, a record turnout for internal party elections in the country.

The next internal party elections again concerned Harilaou Trikoupi and were held on November 11, 2007. This time there were three candidates. The winner was Giorgos Papandreou, who was re-elected with 55.91% of the votes, with Evangelos Venizelos and Costas Skandalidis finishing in second and third place respectively. 769,156 members and friends of the party participated in the elections.

The loss of power in 2009 by PASOK put New Democracy in the difficult position of looking for its new leader in the post-Karamanli era. On November 29, the conference of the blue party decided to vote the members of the party and not the delegates, following in the footsteps of Harilaou Trikoupis. 782,136 came to the polls choosing between Antonis Samaras, Dora Bakoyannis and Panagiotis Psomiadis. While Dimitris Avramopoulos was in the race, polls put him in third place, after Dora Bakoyannis and Antonis Samaras. After the withdrawal and the support for Antonis Samaras, the former prime minister passed in front of the measurements of the research companies. These elections were the proof that in internal party processes nothing can be taken for granted, as Dora Bakoyannis who was the favorite lost in the end. The winner of the elections was Antonis Samaras, with 50.06%, second was Dora Bakoyannis with 39.72% and third was Panagiotis Psomiadis with 10.22%.

After the resignation of Giorgos Papandreou from the prime ministership, it was next to start the procedures for the change of leadership in PA.SO.K. In 2012, Evangelos Venizelos, Christos Papoutsis and Stefanos Tzoumakas submitted nominations for the leadership of the party. This was followed by the convening of the National Conference of PA.SO.K, where Evangelos Venizelos was declared the party’s candidate for president. He was the only one who managed to gather the necessary number of signatures. 236,151 members and friends of the party came to the polls.

In January 2015, PASOK saw its electoral percentages shrink to the maximum extent. There were some similarities with what happened two months ago in SYRIZA. It was the seventh party that got the “ticket” for the Parliament with 13 MPs recording a percentage of only 4.68%. That period was marked as the biggest crisis that Harilaou Trikoupis had experienced, as for the first time it was threatened with annihilation after the magnificent course that the founder of the Movement, Andreas Papandreou, had charted. The PASOK internal party elections of 2015 took place on June 14 with the participation of three candidates. The winner was Fofi Gennimata, with 51.69%, who prevailed over Andreas Loverdos and Odysseus Konstantinopoulos. 52,388 members and friends of the party participated, demonstrating the people’s disappointment with PASOK’s course.
The intra-party “bra de fer” has been many in recent years for the blue and green camp. The base was the one that provided the solution and finally got them out of the impasse. After the result of the July 2015 referendum and the great victory of “no”, Antonis Samaras resigned from the presidency of New Democracy. The election to elect a new president was originally scheduled to take place on August 30. However, MPs of the blue faction called on the interim president, Vangelis Meimarakis, to stay until the spring of 2016, postponing the leadership elections. After the defeat of New Democracy in September 2015, the procedures proceeded. Four candidates participated: Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Vangelis Meimarakis, Apostolos Tzitzikostas and Adonis Georgiadis. No one received 50% of the vote. A second round was also held between Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Vangelis Meimarakis, with the current prime minister winning, on January 10, 2016.

From 2011 onwards, PASOK was looking to find its footing. The late Fofi Gennimata. In June 2015, she was elected president of PASOK with a percentage of 51.7%, succeeding Evangelos Venizelos. On November 12, 2017, the first round of elections was held to elect the head of the new party, among nine candidates. Because no one won the required majority, a second round was held between Fofi Gennimata and Nikos Androulakis. The winner was Fofi Gennimata, receiving 56.75% of the votes.
The last internal party elections in PASOK took place after the loss of Fofi Gennimata, with Nikos Androulakis beating Giorgos Papandreou in the second round. The conclusion reached was the following: the polls failed to catch the “pulse” of the electorate, i.e. the voters of the movement, demonstrating the difficulty and specificity of measuring the behavior of the members of a formation in internal party processes. This is the reason that in SYRIZA they “keep a small basket” and do not seem to be affected by the measurements so far which will intensify as the polls approach.