With almost identical political characteristics, Tsipras<\/b> and Androulakis<\/b> are vying for the gladiator<\/b> mantle that will knock Mitsotakis<\/b> into the electoral fray with the goal of a knockout. <\/p>\n
Both, however, will have to pass the semi-final test to reach the … final, with the showdown between them looking like a fight without a tomorrow. <\/b><\/p>\n
Tsipras is preparing to re-anchor on the political main stage<\/b> with his… Ithaca, with the holds of his ship filled with toxic political cargo<\/b>. He is unfolding the map of ideologies to possibly blur the grim list of his actions when he was both government and opposition. <\/p>\n
To cover up Novartis<\/b> scandal<\/b> to eliminate his political opponents, the TV licenses<\/b> with the operation to manipulate and control the TV landscape in 2016 and consolidate a system of power<\/b>, the Papangelopoulos case<\/b> with the direct and dark interference in the Justice<\/b>, the targeting of institutions with the methods, for example, against the governor of the Bank of Greece, Giannis Stournaras,<\/b> with the aim of his removal. <\/p>\n
Tsipras is already ready to continue on the road he knows how to walk. In an environment of scandal, <\/b>picking up the thread of political intrigue from where he left it. He is preparing for two Preliminary Inquiries, one on Tempe and the other on OPEKEPE.<\/b><\/p>\n
He will put the popular political vocabulary of allegedly “tinkering” with the truth at the forefront, which he may not rule out linking to his electoral defeat in 2023. His ultimate goal will be none other than to make parliament a vast political court<\/b> and resurrect the “up” and “down” squares of the angry and “indignant”. <\/p>\n
So does his ruthless friend, Zoe Konstantopoulou. <\/b>The textbook, after all, of toxicity and populism is well kept in his luggage. Somehow, and with the assistance of willing media and sponsors of the domestic cabal, he will try to lure citizens to “fix” their vote and open new avenues of power. <\/b><\/p>\n
Tsipras’ rebranding, however, may prove to be completely untimely and misguided. <\/b>The opportunity was missed in the summer of 2019, when he suffered a decent defeat, in terms of electoral results, and did not choose to shake off the burden of the 2015-2019 period, to rebuild SYRIZA and re-emerge as a serious, modern and European left-wing force. <\/p>\n
He took the path of inertia and idealism, leaving a legacy of defeat mainly because he broke, defiantly in fact, all his promises, proceeding on the arrogant path of power.<\/b> Can the reborn Tsipras abandon the cheap anti-systemic narrative, the divisive discourse and populism? <\/p>\n
Does he want or know another way?<\/b> Tsipras’ journey by… boat, Androulakis’ ride on a… bicycle for a credible official opposition – he is known to be a keen cyclist. Raised within PASOK, young he rocketed to the top positions in the Movement, became the modernists’ darling and Venizelos’ alter ego<\/b> to reach the party leadership. <\/p>\n
He was only 5 years old, at the first “official” PASOK Congress in 1984, when the machinations were going on and on to fix the crosses and… get the “right” results that the “presidential” team sought.<\/b> He was only 10 years old – and had already moved with his family to Heraklion, Crete – during the period of “dirty ’89”<\/b> and a high school student in June 1996, when Kostas Simitis was prevailing in the succession congress of Andreas Papandreou. A student at the Department of Civil Engineering of Democritus University, he enrolled in the PASP and became the organization’s secretary. <\/p>\n
He emerged as a central member of PASOK at the time of the movement’s fall.<\/b> Consequently, he did not grow up with the green guards and the branch workers who untied and tied up in the public sector. Nor was he with the “Dawn” in his pocket. However, the attitudes were state-of-the-art and in the… bicycle rides the kickbacks and convictions of top ministers <\/b>(see Chochatzopoulos, Papantoniou) were “flying” freely in the air. <\/p>\n
So he too invited his friends to get involved in chambers, local government, private sector, wherever they could and couldn’t register and be involved. And more than a few followed his exhortation. Like Christos Spirtzis, who also studied in Xanthi, and they worked closely together in the internal affairs of TEI for some years, before they were… separated by SYRIZA. <\/b><\/p>\n
Some others gained a platform in the engineers’ associations or in local government, and slowly a party mechanism was set up and bridges were built with trade unions, institutions and organisations. Androulakis, 29, at the 2008 PASOK Congress, came second in the vote for the Central Committee, behind Fofi Gennimata. <\/b><\/p>\n
It was a few days after Alexis Tsipras was elected leader of the Coalition of the Left (Alavanos had given the succession ring<\/b>) and PASOK, after two election defeats, was in opposition. Then the issue of cooperation with SYRIZA was put on the table. Tsipras was 33 years old and was invited to the PASOK Congress to address the conference. <\/p>\n
From the podium, Nikos Androulakis said: “PASOK has 100 Tsipras, but not a single Alavanos.” <\/b>And he was probably right about their… shared studies in populism and toxicity. And now they both are<\/b> on the starting line for the… elusive dream of a rematch with Mitsotakis. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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