By Antonis Anzoletou

The pre-election speeches of the six candidates conclude today in Athens with Nikos Androulakis and Anna Diamantopoulou speaking yesterday in Karaiskaki Square. The elections in Harilaou Trikoupi, since they opened at the base, have always had an interesting “color”. The beginning was made on February 8, 2004 when the only person who claimed the presidency was George Papandreou. The son of the movement’s founder took the baton from Kostas Simitis, collecting 99.70% of the votes. A record was recorded for participation in internal party elections that remains to this day with 1,020,145 members and friends of the party going to the polls.

After the 2007 defeat by New Democracy, its head PASOK was disputed and the new polls were a one-way street. On November 11, 769,156 citizens came to the polls and George Papandreou renewed his mandate in Harilaou Trikoupi with a percentage of 55.91%. Evangelos Venizelos received 38.18% and Kostas Skandalidis 5.74%.

After his resignation George Papandreou on November 11, 2011, PASOK was again looking for its leader. Candidates for the leadership of the party were Evangelos Venizelos, Christos Papoutsis and Stefanos Tzoumakas. The National Conference of PA.SO.K. followed, on March 12, 2012 and Evangelos Venizelos was the only one who managed to gather the necessary number of signatures. He was declared a presidential candidate and six days later with 97.44% he assumed the leadership of Harilaou Trikoupi. 236,151 members and friends had voted. On June 5, 2015, Evangelos Venizelos resigned as president of the movement. The national elections had preceded, in January, with SYRIZA emerging as the first party and PASOK registering the lowest percentage in its history (4.68%). The 2015 polls were held on June 14 with the late Fofi Gennimata (51.29%), beating Andreas Loverdos (25.13%) and Odysseus Konstantinopoulos (22.8%). 52,388 members and friends participated in the elections, while it was preceded by the party conference which had decided on the evolution of PASOK into a political body of the wider Center-Left. The times of mass participation in the internal party processes were over and Harilaou Trikoupi was looking in her most difficult moments to find her steps again.

New ballots were held for the head of the new body on November 12, 2017. There were nine candidates: Nikos AndroulakisFofi Gennimata, Konstantinos Gatsios, Stavros Theodorakis, Giorgos Kaminis, Yiannis Maniatis, Apostolos Pontas, Yiannis Ragousis, Dimitris Tziotis. None of the candidates won the required majority (50% +1) and a runoff election was held a week later between the top two. The winner was Fofi Gennimata for the second time with 56.75% and 87,230 votes. Second was Nikos Androulakis with 43.25% receiving 66,483 votes. The process of electing the leadership for the new body of the Center-Left had been supported by PA.SO.K., Potami, the Democratic Left and the smaller parties that formed the Democratic Alliance. The Change Movement was founded, however in July 2018 Stavros Theodorakis left and in January 2019 Thanasis Theocharopoulos left.

In 2019, KINAL recorded a percentage of 8.1%, winning 22 seats in the Parliament. OR Fofi Births passed away on October 25, 2021. She had announced a few days before her withdrawal from the planned electoral process for health reasons. The last polls before morning were set up on December 5 of the same year. Nikos Androulakis, George Papandreou, Andreas Loverdos, Pavlos Christidis, Pavlos Geroulanos, Haris Kastanidis filed their candidacy. 268,798 members and friends of the party voted. Since, as four years ago, no one achieved an absolute majority, Nikos Androulakis faced George Papandreou in the second round. The current president prevailed with a percentage of 67.17% against 32.19% of the former prime minister.