What is happening with PASOK in Thessaloniki is unprecedented and shows the problematic choices of the Androulakis leadership.
In Charilaou Trikoupis, they are particularly concerned about the party’s ballot and performance in Thessaloniki. This is because Nikos Androulakis has managed to remove the party’s top vote-getters.
The first was Antonis Saoulidis, who was second in crosses with PASOK in the city and was excluded from the congress by a decision of the leadership. This executive is now close to Alexis Tsipras and is ready to fight the crossover battle with the new party the former prime minister is preparing.
The great irony with Antonis Saoulidis, of course, is that he was an influential Androulakis executive.
The Castanidis case
The bigger storm, however, in the city was raised by the exclusion of Charis Castanidis from the party’s ballot papers, with a photographic change to the PASOK constitution by Nikos Androulakis. The former minister had come out on top in crosses in the city, and by a wide margin.
His exclusion caused reactions not only from Charis Kastanidis himself, but also from PASOK executives in Thessaloniki, with many speaking of disrespect towards a historical party official with large roots in the party apparatus. And as the former minister himself hinted, he is not going to leave politics, with many saying he is looking to Alexis Tsipras.
But there is another rumour circulating about Charis Kastanidis. The bad tongues say that Nikos Androulakis has ordered Evangelos Venizelos to take the top spot on the State election ballot and therefore both candidates do not fit in the same parliament with the same party.
A PASOK official in the city said that Nikos Androulakis managed to oust the candidates who came first in crosses to replace them with Rania Thraskia and Petros Pappas from Syriza. And he’s not wrong.
And the worst thing is that no known member is willing to fight the cross in Thessaloniki, so PASOK’s ballot at the moment looks extremely weak for the country’s second largest city. Besides, Thanasis Glavinas has made it clear that he wants to run in the second district of Thessaloniki, where he has contacts in the region because of his father.
