Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Cart Before The Horse: The Challenge Of The Greek Center-Left’s Open Primary

Panagiotis Vlachos 9th November 2017

Panagiotis Vlachos

Panagiotis Vlachos

On November 12, Greek progressives are electing a new leader through an open-to-all primary. Four parties and nine candidates are involved in the challenge. The process is similar to the Italian “Ulivo”, the predecessor of today’s Partito Democratico. But, unlike their Italian comrades, the Greeks have chosen to put the leader before the party. The leader-elect will have the difficult task to re-unite the progressive camp, integrate all parts into a new party within and outside the Parliament and challenge the bi-partisan imperium of SYRIZA and the conservative Nea Dimokratia in the next national election.

An open election of a party leader is not a novelty for the Greek political system. PASOK, one of the longest serving socialist parties in Europe, pioneered it in 2004 and again in 2007. The process empowered the winner George Papandreou with a strong popular mandate to renew the party beyond the rank and file. PASOK’s paradigm was followed twice by the conservative Nea Dimokratia in 2009 and 2015, resulting in surprising victories by the outsiders Antonis Samaras, who later became Prime Minister, and Kyriakos Mitsotakis who is now leading the opinion polls. In all cases, the open election was dictated by the pressure to attract more members and legitimize a powerful leader at the expense of the sclerotic party apparatus. In the case of Mitsotakis, a liberal conservative with an appeal to the middle ground, the victory was grounded on the prospect of beating Alexis Tsipras in the next general election. But can it be the case for the center-left as well?

In fact, the logical ambition to re-unite the progressive camp so as to maximize its parliamentary representation and reclaim its lost voters from SYRIZA fell short for years. It was not before SYRIZA’s re-election in September 2015 that the flirt between the progressive camp’s major players re-kindled: The “Democratic Alignment,” an “Olive Tree” style coalition of three parties including PASOK led by Fofi Gennimata and the social liberal “To Potami” (The River) led by the popular journalist Stavros Theodorakis is commanding around 10% of the popular vote and they are both members of the S&D family in Brussels. Following two years of debates, special committees and sporadic friction between the two leaders, the center left Babel agreed on an open primary election on 12 November and a second round, if necessary, a week later.

Next to the two party leaders, the ballot is numbering 7 more candidates, including the Mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis and the S&D MEP, Nikos Androulakis. Opinion polls suggest Gennimata will qualify first in the first round, but second place is expected to be a close call between Theodorakis, Kaminis and Androulakis. Apart from their personal style and charisma, no stark programmatic differences exist among them apart from Theodorakis who has adopted a Macron-ite policy agenda in an effort to marry Greece’s dire need for job creation with stricter evaluation rules for public sector employees, the merging of social benefits and tax incentives for SMEs.

The contestants have agreed that the winner will define the new party’s name, hierarchy and the structure. S/He will have to coordinate the two parliamentary groups (PASOK and To Potami), organize the convention and prepare the party for the next general election. Mostly, s/he will have to mobilize the thousands of members and affiliates in Greece and abroad.


Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content. We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up here

Leader before party

Unlike similar cases where the open primary model has been endorsed in the context of an existing party (Italy, Portugal), this Greek reverse course was driven by some fundamental prerequisites for making a democratic race more vital and the electoral perspectives of the party more hopeful.

Participation comes first. Although only a few candidates were candid supporters of massive participation, they all acknowledge that the post-election unity will mostly depend on the number of voters. Any figure above 200,000 will be a clear signal that the project attracts more people than the organized rank and file of PASOK or the volunteers of To Potami.

Representation of various social groups is a second priority. The open primary is designed to mobilize social groups that once voted progressive and attract the young who experience deteriorating living standards, poor public services, structural unemployment, part-time and precarious jobs. So far, the contest has failed to attract to the social base of SYRIZA, whose voters, opinion polls say, acknowledge their party as the new core of Greek center-left. Moreover, Tsipras’ metamorphosis from an uncompromising neo-Marxist to a Europhile progressive might also limit the project’s popularity.

Third, there is the new party’s electoral and governmental prospects. Moderate estimates point to a share of ten to 15% of the national vote in the event of a general election. New and old rank-and-file welcome a viable electoral future that could guarantee them a seat in the Parliament, a better position in the party hierarchy, or a public office in a future coalition government, especially if Nea Dimokratia fails to secure an absolute parliamentary majority.

Finally, the dimension of responsiveness towards the public. Growing numbers of dependents on social benefits and precarious workers coexist with an ageing population, public debt overhang, poor social services, a growing sentiment of individualism and rejection of the establishment. The progressives feel the pressure from both sides. On the left, Tsipras still impersonates a clear break from the old political class. On the right, the Conservatives are trying to attract the centrist voters by putting more emphasis on the economy, albeit with limited success.

Although the Greek party system has been in flux since the ‘pasokification’ election of 2012, pollsters now record an explicit social demand for more stability, job creation and growth. Lower levels of political polarization might open a window of opportunity for the center-left to respond with an inclusive program that allows it to reclaim its lost social and political space. Starting with a participatory process, the hoped-for comeback for Greek progressives is expected to be an arduous and slow process demanding leadership, renewal and an opening up to the disappointed middle class.

Update: Gennimata won a run-off with Androulakis on 19 November 2017.

Panagiotis Vlachos

Panagiotis Vlachos is an independent public policy adviser, an innovations in government expert and a former adviser to the Greek Government (2009-2011). He studied Law, European Governance and Public Administration at the Athens National University, the LSE (MSc) and the Harvard Kennedy School (MPA). He is the leader of the progressive movement "Forward Greece" and a recent candidate MP with "To Potami" party.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

You are here: Home / Politics / Cart Before The Horse: The Challenge Of The Greek Center-Left’s Open Primary

Most Popular Posts

Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuelsFaye Holder
Schengen,Fortress Europe,Romania,Bulgaria Romania and Bulgaria stuck in EU’s second tierMagdalena Ulceluse
income inequality,inequality,Gini,1 per cent,elephant chart,elephant Global income inequality: time to revise the elephantBranko Milanovic
Orbán,Hungary,Russia,Putin,sanctions,European Union,EU,European Parliament,commission,funds,funding Time to confront Europe’s rogue state—HungaryStephen Pogány

Most Recent Posts

Pakistan,flooding,floods Flooded Pakistan, symbol of climate injusticeZareen Zahid Qureshi
reality check,EU foreign policy,Russia Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—a reality check for the EUHeidi Mauer, Richard Whitman and Nicholas Wright
permanent EU investment fund,Recovery and Resilience Facility,public investment,RRF Towards a permanent EU investment fundPhilipp Heimberger and Andreas Lichtenberger
sustainability,SDGs,Finland Embedding sustainability in a government programmeJohanna Juselius
social dialogue,social partners Social dialogue must be at the heart of Europe’s futureClaes-Mikael Ståhl

Other Social Europe Publications

front cover scaled Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis
sere12 1 RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The winter issue of the Progressive Post magazine from FEPS is out!

The sequence of recent catastrophes has thrust new words into our vocabulary—'polycrisis', for example, even 'permacrisis'. These challenges have multiple origins, reinforce each other and cannot be tackled individually. But could they also be opportunities for the EU?

This issue offers compelling analyses on the European health union, multilateralism and international co-operation, the state of the union, political alternatives to the narrative imposed by the right and much more!


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

The EU recovery strategy: a blueprint for a more Social Europe or a house of cards?

This new ETUI paper explores the European Union recovery strategy, with a focus on its potentially transformative aspects vis-à-vis European integration and its implications for the social dimension of the EU’s socio-economic governance. In particular, it reflects on whether the agreed measures provide sufficient safeguards against the spectre of austerity and whether these constitute steps away from treating social and labour policies as mere ‘variables’ of economic growth.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube