Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-09-18

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] PASOK leader on party's post-election situation

[01] PASOK leader on party's post-election situation

Speaking to reporters at the party's headquarters in the wake of the main opposition's defeat in Sunday's general elections and amidst intense debate regarding changes in party leadership, the PASOK leader rejected proposals for procedures being guaranteed by third persons, stressing that he himself guarantees procedures. He added that "the guarantors of the unity of PASOK are collectiveness, the responsible bodies, the president, the members and the cadres and other guarantors are not necessary." He further said that the charter, the party's history and its democratic conscience will be a guide.

He promised an open dialogue and procedures whose sole criterion will be the interests of the party and of the country. Papandreou had pledged, in a statement made on Sunday night, that he would soon ask the party's renewal of confidence in his person as party leader.

Papandreou also referred Tuesday to PASOK's autonomy, considering it to be a fundamental principle for its operation and activity. He also referred to his father and the party's founder Andreas Papandreou, pointing out that "Andreas Papandreou and the people consolidated PASOK as a democratic and autonomous party, always with the belief that every authority has its source in the people, expresses the people and serves the people."

Moreover, he underlined that PASOK "clashed with those who wanted Greece to stay back and not to change and with those who wanted to dictate policies or even people without the people's consent." He added that political autonomy will be secured now as well.

Papandreou said "it is clear to all that PASOK cannot be manipulated and he who decides on who will rule the country is the people and nobody else."

The PASOK leader insisted on the self-sufficiency and autonomy of PASOK, noting that it will wage "this struggle" and "we shall win it united."

Lastly, Papandreou appealed to "the democratic and progressive citizens of the country who feel bitterness and pain and who are anxious about the course of the party and of the country." He said that the people want everything to be said and promised that everything will be said and all the responsibilities will be assumed by all, concerning what and how things happened.

Responding later to the PASOK leader, top party official Evangelos Venizelos said that "we respect statural procedures and the party's bodies", and that he also agreed on the need for the "political autonomy of all parties, of the political system in general."

Venizelos, who has widely indicated since late Sunday evening that he intends to challenge Papandreou for the party's leadership after PASOK's election defeat in the September 16 general elections, added that Papandreou "with the ethos which characterises him and the European culture he disposes, can distinguish the role of the (party) president from the role of the presidential candidate who is not an arbitrator on procedures, but a participant in a collective democratic competition."

"I am an ardent of the autonomy of politics, because we do not let society be represented through non political procedures only when we possess a strong political discourse. But in order to achieve this, we must, as parties and as persons, represent society which feels choked and not being represented by today's political discourse. This is what Sunday's vote showed, which was a forced and blackmailed vote, and for this reason it was detrimental to PASOK," Vevizelos added.

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