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PASOK will not easily shake off the possessive attitude of the Papandreou family, according to GRReporter readers

10 February 2012 / 14:02:12  GRReporter
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A few days ago, we joked at GRReporter editor’s office that the former Greek Prime Minister fully deserved the title in November last year: The fall of George Papandreou.

Not only has the former Greek Prime Minister not fallen yet, but he continues to play a leading role in taking decisions vital to the future of Greece. The last example was the meeting of political leaders supporting the government with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos. While the media dealt with Antonis Samaras' insistence of not cutting the auxiliary pensions that are less than 300 euro and with the unsuccessful manoeuvres of LAOS leader George Karatzaferis, the "red line" of George Papandreou remained somehow unnoticed. What did he say? That the request of the leader of the "blue" will lead to cuts in basic pensions, and namely of the pensions of employees in public companies, which are the highest in the country.

Why? Because the leading trade unions in the country are precisely in public companies, they are the creation of PASOK and have been its caressing children for decades. "He allowed a year of inactivity, increased government spending, tried to criminalize the sale of state property, made the political operetta in June 2011, made Greece face the drachma, proposed a puppet for prime minister - Filippos Petsalnikos, brought his party to 9% in the polls. He was talkative in Costa Rica at the congress of the Socialist International and with the PASOK parliamentary group. He always says the same things, with no trace of self-criticism. But he is always silent during negotiations, even at the latest ones. His only problem – not to cut the pensions of PASOK’s favourite public enterprises."

This is just one of the definitions that rational Greeks give the man who won the 2009 parliamentary elections with a lead of 10 points and the covenant promise, "There is money."

In the midst of the worst period in the history of PASOK, George Papandreou looks like he is trying his best to remain the head of the party, although his leading ministers are showing him the exit.

GRReporter asked its readers what might be the outcome of internal struggles for supremacy in PASOK and whether George Papandreou and the party created by his father, Andreas Papandreou, could separate.

Responses in the three language versions of the site are almost identical and unanimous. So, will PASOK manage to emancipate itself from the Papandreou family?

The reply: "After they ruined Greece, the Papandreou brothers are ruining the party, which is falling apart" got the highest number of votes. Of them, the highest is the number of votes in the Greek version – 68%. The votes in the Bulgarian and English versions are 45% and 47% respectively.

26% of the Bulgarian and English readers believe that the former Prime Minister will not resign from the party, perceived by him as family ownership, while 11% of the Greek respondents think so.

Greek readers considered it more likely that his separation would be long and painful and would cause turmoil among the Socialists, which is in fact happening now. Their responses are 19%. The same answer was given by 22% of the Bulgarian readers and 18% of readers of the English version of GRReporter.

The  "positive" option, if it can thus be defined, that PASOK will soon kick out Andreas’s "princes" has received the most pessimistic number of votes. It was supported by 6% of the Bulgarian, 9% of the English and only 1% of the Greek readers.

Thank you for your participation and we await your answers in our new poll: Why, after two years of financial supervision, is Greece on the brink of economic collapse?

Tags: PoliticsPollGeorge PapandreouPASOKFormer Prime Minister
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