There are times when the harshest political opposition <\/b>doesn’t come from your opponents. <\/p>\n
It comes from your own choices. This is exactly what happened with PASOK’s <\/b>stance on constitutional revision. Nikos Androulakis decided to not vote<\/b> for the proposals<\/b> of party<\/b>, creating a political image that is hard to explain to citizens and even harder to reconcile with the rhetoric about an alternative proposal for governance.<\/p>\n
For two years now, the powerful Nikolas<\/b> has been persistently calling for elections. <\/b>For two years he has been assuring that PASOK can defeat New Democracy and form the core of the next government. Anyone who listens to his public statements can reasonably conclude that he considers political change not just possible but almost inevitable.<\/p>\n
But when the time came for the constitutional revision,<\/b> a different Nicholas appeared.<\/p>\n
The official PASOK<\/b> argument is well known. If its proposals get 180 votes today,<\/b> then they can be finalised in the next parliament with 151 votes. <\/b>This is why the party chooses not to vote for them, so that 180 votes are required in the next revisionary parliament as well.<\/p>\n
This logic has a parliamentary basis. But it also has a political side effect<\/b> that cannot be hidden.<\/p>\n
If Androulakis really believes he will be the nwinner of the next election,<\/b> why is he so afraid of 151 votes in the next parliament? If PASOK governs, it will shape the final content of the articles. But if he thinks it more likely that the New Democracy<\/b> will still have a majority, then the current tactics make sense as a defensive line of defense for the future opposition.<\/p>\n
This is where the clash of the mighty Nicolas and the mighty Nicolas begins.<\/p>\n
The first <\/b>promises victories, firsts and political change. <\/b>The second <\/b>designs institutional walls<\/b> to prevent the opponent from ruling without his own approval. The first speaks like tomorrow’s prime minister. The second is organising himself like tomorrow’s leader of yet another protest party.<\/p>\n
But there are other explanations<\/b>. PASOK’s leadership knows that on crucial issues there are different views within the party. A universal refusal to vote washes everyone’s hands.<\/b> No one needs to be exposed. No one needs to bear the political cost of a difficult choice.<\/b><\/p>\n
At the same time, the hard line against New Democracy is aimed at a specific audience. PASOK is trying to convince anti-right-wing voters<\/b> that it is the only effective bulwark against the government. Even if that means refusing to vote for proposals that it believes are right.<\/p>\n
The problem is that this takes the debate away from the property<\/b>. Instead of debating proposals on the rule of law,<\/b>public education or the functioning of institutions, the public debate revolves around parliamentary gimmicks and numerical balances.<\/p>\n
In short, the case of the constitutional review<\/b> has revealed something deeper than a mere tactical choice. It revealed the gap between rhetoric and real expectations.<\/b> For the party that until yesterday was talking about a primary, a government and a population of over 30%, now appears to be planning for the next day as if preparing for an entirely different role. And so the biggest rival<\/b> to the mighty Nicola is not, after all, the New Democracy. It’s the mighty Nicholas himself. <\/b>One promises that he is coming to rule. The other shows he has little faith that he will succeed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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