In a state of… nervous breakdown he is at PASOK from two “movements” by Harilaou Trikoupis during the weekend, which further worsened the climate inside the party.
His absence Nikos Androulakis from his funeral Dionysis Savvopoulos (he was in Italy, where he attended a basketball game) and the resignation of the one-day manager (in the chief’s office), George Papavasiliou (“caught” on the internet praising the initiatives of Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Grigoris Dimitriadis) provokes the anger of many executives for the choices of Charilaou Trikoupis and seems to “blow up” the effort of all the tendencies for “truce” and unifying steps towards the crucial Congress of the party and especially towards the elections.
There was not a PASOK official during the weekend who did not speak with words of great intensity and harsh disapproval of Harilaou Trikoupis firstly for the “completely unjustified absence of the president from the funeral of “Nionios” and secondly for choosing to appoint to a key position an executive who in the recent past has not shied away from publicly praising the government for its initiatives.
Can the PASOK MP Stefanos Parastatides to indirectly leave sharp edges to the leadership by saying that it was a “personal choice” to place Mr. Papavasileiou in the management of Mr. Androulakis’s office, however top executives in their private discussions launched a fierce attack and even without listening to a second conversation against Harilaou Trikoupis for the “two out of two mistakes”.
It smells like gunpowder
Her first meeting Conference Political Secretariat was slated for this week, but many are now all but betting it will happen, since… it smells like a blast. Even “presidential” officials who had not boldly expressed their opposition to Papavassiliou’s appointment are wondering about Harilaou Trikoupis’ “frivolous” and “contradictory” moves at a crucial moment for the party. On the one hand, Mr. Androulakis launches attacks on the Mitsotakis government and makes it clear at every opportunity that there is no possibility of cooperation with the ND post-election, and on the other hand, he brings alongside him an executive who praised Megaros Maximos. On the one hand, Mr. Androulakis … is alluding to the institutional movements and on the other hand, the leadership of the main opposition party is absent from the “farewell” to the great Greek artist – the “ark of post-colonialism”, according to Evangelos Venizelos.
The answer that the president was represented by Yannis Vardakastanis (the COES Secretary) at the funeral, anything but convincing in the ears of executives who noted that the Anna Diamantopoulouo Kostas Laliotiso Harry Doukas (Mayor of Athens), o Kostas Tsoukalas and others from PASOK went to honor Savvopoulos on their own initiative.
Who proposed Papavasiliou?
And all this happens while the warning tick-tock of the “needle” continues to tick. The finding of Pavlos Geroulanos refers to the low opinion polls and the inability of Charilaou Trikoupis to break the “ceiling” now and develop a plan to create a strong alternative pole towards the elections. Some within the party, asking how Androulakis ended up choosing Papavasileiou, claimed to their interlocutors that a decisive role was played by Nikos Milis and the Kostas Papadimitriou. Mr. Milis, member of the Political Council of PASOK and First Vice-President of TEE, said that he has known the engineer (TEE) Papavasileiou for many years. Both are trusted associates of Mr. Androulakis – from the group that strongly supported his re-election to the leadership.
Papavasiliou’s posts that led to the resignation
Giorgos Papavasileiou (executive in the organization of Agia Paraskevi) after a telephone conversation with Mr. Androulakis and after his other “comrades” began to remember and get angry on the internet from the praises to the Mitsotakis governmentfinally submitted his resignation on Saturday afternoon.
The statement of Mr. Papavasiliou is as follows: “From 1974 until today I have been a consistent and steadfast member of PASOK, supporting all its Presidents. I have never distanced myself from the struggle of our party to find itself again in its broad social and political boundaries in response to the demand for political change. A fight that is now matched with the citizens’ request for a change of course and the defeat of the New Democracy in the next elections.
The attempt by some circles to make the parapolitical, political is out of hand. Because it is clear that my 2 comments 5 years ago do not mean a general recognition of a Prime Minister and a government, which denied even the most well-intentioned citizens and is the protagonist in corruption and unreliability, which with its policy wastes the opportunities of productive and creative Greece by intensifying social inequalities.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis received the trust of the citizens twice. Ultimately he will go down in history as the Prime Minister of wiretapping, scandals and the discrediting of democratic institutions. Because I don’t want there to be any shadow in the fight that PASOK is fighting, I submitted my resignation, which was accepted. I will continue to be present in the struggle for political change from whatever position is asked of me.”
Finally, it should be noted that in November 2020 and on the occasion of incidents of violence in universities, Mr. Papavasileiou wrote: “Excellent Mitsotakis, for the fascist parastatal of universities with a leftist guise”. On April 15, 2021, he praised the Minister of Defense Nikos Dendias, congratulating him on his presence and his statements. In another post in April 2021, Mr. Papavasileiou’s comments referred to the then general secretary of the Prime Minister, Grigoris Dimitriadis, regarding the fact that 25 certificates from the Ministries of Digital Governance and Justice had been merged. “Finally there are serious people, well done,” was his comment.
