The first quarter of 2026 will see the Congress of PASOK take place, as announced earlier today at the Political Secretariat meeting of KINAL by party president Nikos Androulakis. He also referred to the work undertaken by the ballot committee under historic member Petros Lambrou and announced that former minister Kostas Skandalidis will take charge of party expansion.
Nikos Androulakis: A congress for society and springboard for national elections
“The congress will take place in the first quarter of 2026. It must be a congress that will serve the plan of a journey to the people. The congress is an opportunity, not for an internal discussion, but for a discussion with society, for society. Personally, I am very pleased, I feel very good when I am with the people and I understand that PASOK can re-enter society. People are listening to us. It will not be a congress of correlations, it will be a congress of society, one way or another. It will be the springboard for the battle of national elections,” Nikos Androulakis noted characteristically.
“I fought many elections with few weapons, strong opponents and autonomy from networks”
“I know the difficulties and have the experience, because for four years I fought many elections during the four years of my presidency. Many elections, with few weapons, with strong opponents and great autonomy from networks. I know that PASOK struggles, it could have different treatment, but this is who I will be and this is how I will proceed. This does not change and does not change because when I announced in 2021 that I would be a candidate, I made it a priority: I don’t want PASOK to apologize to anyone again. And this is the party pride of ordinary PASOK people, that PASOK no longer apologizes. It proposes and attacks without apology,” he emphasized next.
“I understand that this creates problems and confrontations. But it is a one-way street in this era of rising anti-systemism to prove that we can be a traditional party but one that functions and thinks not anti-systemically, but in a fair way towards society. Where transparency is our central choice. We can prove that the traditional party creates the sense of credibility and stability but our disruptive program touches the world that is outside the walls, desperate, not believing in anything,” Nikos Androulakis added.
“We have the alternative plan against New Democracy – Battle against conservatism and interests”
Next, he referred to what happened after the presentation of PASOK’s program at the Thessaloniki International Fair, emphasizing that there were statements that were wrong but also statements that were misinterpreted, while calling on everyone to commit that until election Sunday there must be empathy and understanding regarding how important this effort is.
“After the Thessaloniki International Fair, which was truly a moment of revival and I would say an important moment in the recent history of our faction, where after many years we found ourselves again proposing the alternative plan against the Right. I don’t think we believed at the beginning of this effort that this moment would come so soon, for us to propose the alternative plan against New Democracy. At the moment when there was a climate of revival, encouragement and faith in the endeavor, there was a polyphony which is wealth, as long as it serves a common strategy,” he characteristically emphasized.
“It’s not worth it for PASOK people to make wrong statements or statements that can be misinterpreted and as New Democracy has strong speakers, to take them and change the agenda trying to derail PASOK from its central political plan. Our people don’t deserve this, it disappoints them. That’s why I want from today until Sunday of the great and historic battle we have to give against New Democracy, to have the empathy and understanding of how important this effort is,” he further emphasized.
“We must all move with high factional and national responsibility”
“We must all move with a high index of factional and national responsibility. We don’t have the same weapons against us. We cannot face New Democracy on the same terms, you see it, you follow it. We put the big issue of high prices last week and they try again to change the agenda. Our only strengths are our words, our positions and our good presence. We must stop shooting ourselves in the foot for no reason. We all have the same vision, the same plan and the same goal: On Sunday evening to have served the needs of the Greek people and the progressive world of the country. What I’m telling you is not a narrative of party patriotism, it is my deep faith in a responsibility and a vision that I have and we have to change Greece,” he meaningfully emphasized.
As he mentioned next, Nikos Androulakis said “unity is the battle against conservatism and interests. Only then will the Greek people trust us again. When they see that we are at the forefront of the battle against conservatism, corruption and oligarchy. No one should feel lonely in such a battle. If they feel lonely, we lost. Unity means everyone, with the same vigor, with the same strength giving the battle against New Democracy and interests – with every backstage game. Remember what happened with Tsipras? They said all summer that ‘his big intervention is coming’. Do you remember anything from that intervention? ‘The Institute is coming with the top people from all over the world’? The same ones who were there, are still there.
PASOK is their problem because it has roots, it has opinions and it has positions. PASOK is not a one man show party. It is not a post-political party where there is one enlightened leadership and a network that supports it. It is a party of programmatic discourse, an institutional party with roots, with values, with fronts. They want social media parties, single-person parties because with these parties you can easily communicate, easily ally and easily corrupt. That’s why our faction must lead dynamically, with unity against the battle, this great battle we have to give”.
“The government allowed cartelization and uncontrolled market operation”
“We stood against cartels, as the socialist government of Spain did. PASOK’s goal and priority is the decartelization of the domestic uncontrolled market, which was cartelized with the responsibility of the current government, which did not manage in the first year to set rules, conduct controls, collect large fines, with the result that today the situation has gotten out of hand,” he argued at another point.
“We are the party of the periphery”
“We are the party of the periphery, our percentages prove it. It’s also a matter of course. We supported regional development and local government, we made the laws to reconstruct the Greek periphery and now what do we see? Hellenic Post? Banks? They said different things in September, they do different things in November. The periphery is becoming deserted – and we’re no longer talking about villages becoming ghost towns, we’re talking about small towns too. We must speak, as on September 3rd, very clearly about regional development. With pillars of infrastructure, road networks, trains and energy. Wherever I go, all the productive bodies of the periphery, all the local government officials, embrace our energy program. We don’t want you as clients of the oligarchy, we want you as producers of your energy. You will be both producers and sellers of energy and not clients of the oligarchy. This is the green transition for us,” Nikos Androulakis also said.
“When you tolerate the monster, in the end it’s everywhere and returns as a crisis of confidence”
“When you tolerate the monster, in the end the monster is everywhere and returns as a crisis of confidence. That’s why we need to take other initiatives. The Constitution is the field of major national changes – both for article 86 but also for other interventions – that we should soon discuss with constitutional scholars and civil society to get into the forefront of major institutional changes and necessary institutional counterbalances that the country needs.
We cannot, therefore, discuss a country where the Council of State decides, but the government does not implement its decisions – especially when they concern the leader of the main opposition. This has not happened anywhere else in Europe. We cannot discuss a country where the Prime Minister calls the majority MPs – because he doesn’t trust them – to go to sleep early and those he trusts to vote by mail. We showed the highest character of institutional respect and democratic understanding with our initiative for all parties to leave Parliament this summer.
If PASOK wants to address the new crisis of confidence that once again covers our country after the memoranda – then it was deeply economic, now it is social and economic and institutional – it must be found next to the citizen and not in words or from the channels. Next to the citizen means what we did in Thessaly and what we have done elsewhere, to be done every day until the ballot boxes of the national elections close. This is the only way to endure, resist and play a leading role,” the PASOK leader also underlined.
