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Anastasia Balezdrova

PASOK, the party that ruled Greece for more than 23 years, is celebrating its 39^th anniversary. Is there a reason for joy, however? The Socialists’ balance is rather bitter and a backward glance will give a clear idea of ​​what we mean.

The party, or the movement as its followers are still calling it, was established on 3 September 1974. The slogan with which its leader Andreas Papandreou had fascinated its supporters in the squares was "Change". With promises to reject the right-wing conservatism and for national independence he had managed to win the elections in 1981 with the impressive rate of 48%. Mass appointments in the public sector and significant wage increases guaranteed a trouble-free ruling to the Socialists.

At the same time, power games were raging inside the party and its supremacy in the political life of Greece ended in 1989 with the Koskotas scandal which was in practice a political and financial affair aiming to gain control over the banks and media in the country. Banker George Koskotas had played the central role in it but leading political figures of PASOK led by party chairman Andreas Papandreou had also been involved. The court had not only acquitted Andreas Papandreou but he had returned to the party’s leadership in 1992 as its absolute and sole leader.

Four years later he won the elections again but he was very ill and in 1996 Costas Simitis, who had never been among Papandreou’s favourites, took over the party and the post of Prime Minister. It is worth noting that Simitis’ main opponent in the internal party elections was Akis Tsochatzopoulos. The Greek media often recall, in the press coverage of the case of the bribes received by him in connection with the arms deliveries, that the defendant had been about to become Greece’s Prime Minister.
 
Costas Simitis created his own group around him which remains in history under the name of "modernizers". PASOK was again the only player on the political scene and the only threat to it was its internal party enemies. While Simitis was in power Greece joined the euro area but, a few months before the end of the term of his office, he invited to his house the son of the founder of the party, George Papandreou, and gave him the "ring", i.e. the party. In practice Greece had remained without Prime Minister for about two months and the negative forecasts of polling agencies, namely that PASOK would lose the elections from New Democracy, had materialized. In October 2009, the Papandreou family returned to power, promising by the memorable phrase "There is money", that salaries would not be "frozen". Several months later, in a moving address to the Greek people, against the background of the port of Kastelorizo, ​​George Papandreou had announced that Greece had considerable financial problems and had sought help from the International Monetary Fund. It was followed by his proposal for a referendum on whether Greece should remain or exit the Euro zone and the nightmarish night meeting of the leaders of the European Union member states.

From 48% in 1981 the rate of PASOK’s votes fell to 12.5% in 2012. Leading party officials had disappeared from the political horizon, the number of supporters had sharply decreased and those who had benefited to the highest degree from the longstanding party ruling have gradually passed into the ranks of today's main opposition party, the extreme left SYRIZA.

Today PASOK is governing in coalition with New Democracy and a large number of its members cannot accept this. Therefore, the discussions during the two-day symposium on the occasion of the anniversary were devoted to the unification of the left centre forces which was the proposal of party leader Evangelos Venizelos and which was approved by his predecessors Costas Simitis and George Papandreou.

At the same time, this was their only common ground as the differences between them were more than pressing during the anniversary event at the end of the symposium organized by the Andreas Papandreou Institute of Strategic and Development Studies (ISTAME).

Costas Simitis was the first to arrive in the hall and he was greeted by a very short and rather reserved applause. Nevertheless, cheerful applauses interrupted his speech several times. "PASOK has recently lost almost all of its influence," he stated. After saying that the economic problems of Greece are due to New Democracy’s governments and to the loans obtained between 2004 and 2009, Costas Simitis aimed his shafts at George Papandreou. "We have paid for our own illusions and the worst is that the Greek people have paid for them too. We saw the approaching tsunami before 2009 but we were silent," he said. "We need to stop underestimating the intelligence of the people in order to get out of deep waters. A dialogue, sincerity, new people and ideas are needed rather than the pursuit of personal ambitions by certain people."

When George Papandreou walked into the hall, dozens of party members chanted "Papandreou" and the slogan "PASOK is here, united and strong." In his speech, he stood firmly behind the catch phrase "There is money," which he said had been misunderstood and misinterpreted. George Papandreou had fully protected the policy of his government, stressing that his proposal to hold a referendum was correct and accusing again Greece’s European partners of not adequately responding to the financial crisis.
 
"I am being criticized for travelling a lot. I would say that there are very few voices in support of Greece overseas. That is why I will continue to do so wherever I can," the former Prime Minister said at the end of his speech.