Nikos Androulakis, president of PASOK and again contender for the leadership of the party, defended his initiatives and his movements to keep the party united, during his speech in Chania at noon.

His speech was attended by executives and friends of the party, despite the often unfair, as he claimed, criticism he received from within PASOK. “I did everything in my power to be united, even when I saw behaviors that got in the way of the collective effort,” he noted. Mr. Androulakis placed his policy on three axes – Unity, Renewal, Political Autonomy – and characterized the renewal that followed in the party and on the ballots as successful. “We needed renewal, we achieved it because we were very low among the younger generations. Renewal to stand equally in all generations. PASOK can now look to the future with optimism and political autonomy, which means I am tearing down the bridges from New Democracy and SYRIZA”.

Speaking to those gathered, he said that PASOK managed to be asked, not with whom it will go today, but when it will govern, and it is the success of the common people “who kept the faction alive in difficult times, because people had historical memories of the good years of PASOK and a political system without PASOK could not be imagined. These are the people, the hard core that kept the dream alive, standing, to come back as a strong pole in the political scene”. He even invited everyone, members and friends of PASOK, on ​​October 6 and 13, to renew the relationship of trust signed with him in 2021, because as he explained, “with our struggle, the difficult things are behind, and the best things are ahead. And this does not only concern PASOK, but concerns our country and our people.” He also mentioned that if everything he said – and it concerns the program, the positions and the strategy he will follow – becomes a government program, “inequalities will decrease, we will have a serious education and health system, less accuracy, better jobs, better competitive economy and finally a quality democracy for all Greeks. We will have a high standard of living at European standards for our people and a demographic solution.” After all, these are both the great National goals that he has set himself and with them he will go to the next elections to claim the prime ministership, as he pointed out.

He also referred to the party’s success, a result of the strategy it maintained for self-government, without dividing the societies in the second round, “We have 18 persons from the PASOK area, mayors, won in the three large municipalities of the country and with two Regions. The path we set for renewal, for unity, was prescribed. Today in the Parliament and in the media, there are fresh new faces in every field. This is reflected, that from 3.5% in the ages 18 – 24 today we are 12%. After 15 years, PASOK is the first party in the center, passing New Democracy by 10 points and has green on its map, when no other opposition party on the political map has its color.”

He argued for the successful outcome of his elections, criticizing the attitude of the prime minister: “Mr. Mitsotakis, in front of keeping his chair, has no value and moral barrier – and to the question of who can ultimately win Mitsotakis, the one who until today he is the only one who has led him to defeats, it is PASOK and the democratic faction”.

He emphasized that there is no contradiction or disagreement in everything PASOK submits, “the government simply does not want to implement them, because it does not want to clash with the 4 major oligopolies, i.e. energy, food, health and banks and now and the transports”. He presented his refusal to accept the “de-Hellenization” of the economy through the golden visa: “Foreigners to give an amount for investment in the primary sector, manufacturing, research, tourism. Not to sell off our property, our houses, so that some people can get a golden visa”. He also defended tourism with rules, as well as for the support of the primary sector, processing, handicrafts, talking about special plans with terms of connection to small renewable energy parks on islands, but also for cooperatives, farmers, breeders, processing. “If everyone, cooperatives and municipalities had their own energy, they would gain low production costs and low living costs,” he noted among other things.

The president of PASOK also referred to the criticism he receives, pointing out that “I don’t have the infallibility of the Pope, we made mistakes, but I can’t listen to theories without a plan.” At this point, he condemned both the tactics of some executives of the party and the government, who have no plan for tomorrow, as he said, but only wishful thinking. “Words are easy, when they are especially spoiled by the interests of the media, which show what they want to show and how they want, because quite simply Mr. Mitsotakis is the beneficiary,” he noted characteristically, giving as an example the night of the European elections: There ” for the first time New Democracy loses 13 points, after many years the downward trend of SYRIZA continues and on the same night PASOK officials rose up and raised the issue of leadership. I make it my self-criticism, others make it their self-criticism? – and I’m talking about all the executives, about where we started and where we are today. Because I have not been president for 4 or 14 years, but in two and a half years, PASOK returned with dignity, hope and perspective, and no one should underestimate that.”

Finally, speaking about the institutions, he said that this is a conversation that was opened in a violent way in Greece, it is revealing according to the European institutions, and that is why PASOK proposes to change the Constitution “to change the way of choosing the leadership of the Judiciary: A party cannot appoint the leadership of the Judiciary, there must be institutional counterweights in the selection of the Judiciary as well as in the President of the Hellenic Republic”.

With unity, seriousness, reliability and consistency, we can go even further, said Mr. Androulakis. Concluding his speech, he made reference to a free party, with open procedures, without friendships that will be qualified due to relations with the leadership, honoring its members and the 89 new offices of PASOK, which after years were opened in the country, with the strengthening of ordinary members.