Greece’s major opposition party PASOK has selected Tasos Giannitsis as its presidential candidate.
This decision was spurred by yesterday’s announcement of the selection of Kostas Tasoulas by the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
In this context the parliamentary group of PASOK convened on Thursday at 10:30 in Parliament. The purpose of today’s meeting was to discuss and submit a unified proposal, so the party could rally behind a presidential candidate who reflects its vision for the institution of the President of the Republic.
PASOK swiftly responded to the news that the government has selected the current President of Parliament as its candidate, stating unequivocally that it will not support a partisan choice from an incumbent member of Parliament.
At the same time, it accused Mitsotakis of not selecting a figure from the center-left, as tradition has it for the governing party to nominate a presidential candidate from a different political sphere.
According to sources, Giannitsis, the former Minister of Interior Affairs (2011), gained an advantage over the other potential candidates during the meeting and was proposed by PASOK’s parliamentary group.
A key indicator of this direction from the opposition is the statement made by its leader Nikos Androulakis regarding whether the next President of the Republic should be a political figure. Androulakis stated that what constitutes a political figure is “relative,” clarifying that it is all a matter of how one perceives the term “political figure.”
This statement made by the president of PASOK was interpreted by some as indicative, fueling speculation that Giannitsis, who has not been at the forefront of political developments in recent years, is garnering the most positive opinions.
Giannitsis is an Emeritus Professor of Economics at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, with a background in Law and Economics-Political Sciences and a doctorate from the Free University of Berlin. He has held key roles, including Chairman of the Council of Economic Experts, economic advisor to Prime Ministers Andreas Papandreou and Costas Simitis, and several ministerial positions such as Minister of Labor, Foreign Affairs, and the Interior. His work focuses on development theory, the Greek economy, European integration, and the economics of technology, with numerous publications on these topics.
