The winds of voter support are changing. Recent polls show a growing discontent among Greece’s electorate and shifting party preferences. The major political parties in Greece are all angling to consolidate their forces and win back public support.
PASOK charting their course
PASOK is working to maintain the image of unity and efficacy it has projected since its recent internal elections.
Today, the center-left party’s Coordinating Political Center will meet for the second time. The meeting of the members of the new body has been set for 16:00 at their headquarters on Charilaou Trikoupis.
Sure to be front-of-mind for PASOK are the latest opinion polls, which show the party flirting with what could soon be a 20% voter preference and a waning gap between them and leading party New Democracy– a gap now teetering between single-digit and low double-digit percentages.
Today’s meeting is expected to continue the party’s process of charting its political course. A high-ranking member of the party anonymously told To Vima, “we are organizing and in the next period we will take many important initiatives.”
“PASOK must operate within society, next to the citizen, with legislative proposals in parliament such as those that concern housing, but also we must not forget the opportunity that is on the horizon regarding constitutional revision,” said the party member. “There, we must be ready to honor the tradition we have as a party and make our own proposals to strengthen the institutions that are affected by the government’s manipulations.”
SYRIZA struggles to stay afloat
Left-wing SYRIZA is proceeding towards its own internal presidential elections despite a climate of consternation. Yesterday the party’s Political Secretariat confirmed the four candidacies of Pavlos Polakis, Socrates Famellos, Nikola Farantouris and Apostolos Gletsos, and made clear once again that they will not accept the candidacy of Stefanos Kasselakis.
SYRIZA is suffering a complete collapse in voter approval, hitting only 8.8% in polls a few days ago after months of internal spats. The party is trying to convey a message that it is stable and thriving, but recent months show a party deeply divided and unable to end infighting.
One side of the divide are the majority of the party’s cadres that have barred Kasselakis from the election process with heavy-handed allegations. On the other side are Kasselakis and his camp who refuse to adhere to party decisions or procedures. In an interview on television channel Kontra last night, Kasselakis asserted as he has before, that he will be a candidate for SYRIZA’s internal elections, and that the party congress scheduled for November 8 to 10 will decide on the nominations. He encouraged voters to vote for delegates in this weekend’s intra-party elections.
New Democracy tries not to rock the boat
The ruling party New Democracy has struggled to capitalize on the conflicts within SYRIZA, and at the moment is trying to cool down some of its own internal tensions. In the past weeks critiques have been lobbed by former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at Mitsotakis’s foreign policy stance toward Turkey– deriding it as as not tough enough. There are even rumors that Samaras might oppose the upcoming budget bill, though the New Democracy party spokesperson has denied any such contentions within the party.
New Democracy is facing plummeting voter support– down to around 25% from its 2023 election result of 40.5%. The party is looking to quash and elide any internal dissent, especially as smaller nationalist parties try to angle for space.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to meet with New Democracy former PMs Antonis Samaras and Kostas Karamanlis today at a conference organized by the Konstantinos Karamanlis Institute, titled “1974-2024: 50 Years Since the Transition to Democracy—Democracy in Our Times.”
