Just as the Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was addressing the parliamentary group of New Democracy, George Papandreou chose to drop a bombshell of his own, publishing a long statement which is considered to be the precursor to the launch of a new party by the former Prime Minister, in the event that a new president is not elected and snap elections are triggered.
Papandreou remains an MP with the center left party and junior coalition partner PASOK. However a long simmering rift between Papandreou and the current leader of the party and Deputy PM, Evangelos Venizelos turned into an un-bridgeable gap recently when Papandreou demanded a PASOK conference and leadership elections in the party.
That request was rejected by Venizelos. In any event it has now been superseded by the move by the government to bring the presidential elections forward from February to December. If on the 29th of December a new president is not elected by a supermajority of 180 MPs, then general elections will be triggered in February.
Given that a PASOK conference before then is unlikely if not impossible, there has been speculation as to how Papandreou will move in the increasingly likely event that parliament is dissolved early in the new year.
His statement today goes some way towards answering that question as it is intensely critical not only of the opposition party SYRIZA, but of the current government as well. He argues that both together have led the country to a dead-end and squandered opportunities created by the sacrifices of citizens. While he argues that parliament ‘can and must’ elect a new president, it is clear that if this does not happen and snap elections are triggered Papandreou will not be campaigning by Venizelos or Samaras’s side.
While he does not explicitly say that he would go to the polls as the leader of a new party in the event that elections take place, many long-time political observers interpret his text as effectively a declaration of intent to break away from Venizelos’s PASOK.
The Statement
Papandreou criticizes both the government and the opposition party for ‘competing in their anti-Memorandum rhetoric' engaging both in cheap talk. He slams, “the unprecedented absence of the Government and the Opposition from the front of dealing with the deeper causes which led us to the crisis and to the verge of a national tragedy, both instead hiding behind anti-memorandum slogans.”
As such, he argues, neither took on the entrenched clientelist interests which are the true source of the troubles rocking Greece.
Similarly the current debate regarding the election or not of a new head of state ignores the ‘true dilemma’ which concerns the transition to a ‘post-clientelist’ Greece.
“As a result of all this?” Papandreou writes, “At a time when the country needed to make use of the… dynamic created through the sacrifices of the Greek people and the unprecedented results achieved, instead finds itself opposite our partners unarmed in negotiations, but also at an impasse created both by the leadership of the Government through its choices, as well as the Opposition through its supposed people-friendly political positions”
“As such, the current leadership of the Government lost whatever political capital it had while the opposition is trapped in the web that it itself created.”
Papandreou maintains that for all the clash between SYRIZA and the government neither is capable of providing a way out for Greece. As opposed as they are with one another, they are both responsible for the dead-end. And currently that they are competing to see who can terrify the Greek people more and are therefore destabilizing the country.
“Those who are responsible for governing the country failed to lead it to a ‘new day’, despite the bipartisan support in parliament, despite the unprecedented conditions of social peace compared to what we faced in the 2009-2011 period, and despite the fact that the hardest decisions for reforms and adjustments were taken by the PASOK government.”
Papandreou concludes stating that “the current parliament can and must elect a president,” after which a new government should be formed which sets a clear framework for ‘real reforms’ with a clear ‘democratic and progressive’ nature. It should also set a framework to move ahead with the negotiations with the troika and evaluate the country’s obligations to its lenders, proceed with ‘historic, progressive, constitutional reform, and make use of referendums for citizens to decide regarding major institutional changes in the country.
The statement concludes that in the event of the “undesirable outcome that there is no such positive development and irresponsibility leads the country to national elections, we are all called to shoulder our responsibilities.”
“The healthy productive and creative powers of the country desire… a path of dignity, potential and hope.”
“The progressive forces of the country can and must contribute to surpassing the dead-end and to creating a sustainable course, for Greece and the Greek people.”
“That is our obligation, and we will live up to it,” Papandreou concludes.
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