An attempt towards understanding for top PASOK members

Some will spend New Year’s in the mountains, the most unfortunate ones without money, and PASOK members on their phones and possibly in meetings. Since the end of last Tuesday’s meeting, one request has been expressed by mid-level members to those at the top: fix things up! This is addressed to Evangelos Venizelos, Andreas Loverdos, Kostas Skandalidis, Anna Diamantopoulou and Michalis Chrysohoidis, who showed the exit to George Papandreou, but did not take the next step. Now, executives believe they are asking for the minimum. They should make arrangements to send a common message to the party president before the political council meeting on January 4. According to party members and MPs, if George Papandreou does not reveal his cards at least by then, both the party and the country will be in trouble.

Everybody’s patience has run out, following voters’ strength which has long reached its limits. MPs know well that PASOK will be destroyed if they go to elections with half-hearted solutions. They want clear solutions and they want them now. Even if the top members choose a mild attitude towards Papandreou, for their own ends, an MP movement will occur in January.

Meanwhile, some members believe the extended time scale is a "trap", and want a national council at the end of the month and a meeting on the timing of elections, as shown by Papandreou at the last meeting in Ippocratous. They believe that PASOK will be locked under the government’s protection, unable to make its own proposal on the way to elections. They warn that "something like that will destroy us".

Dissolution scenarios are rampant once again. Some members should leave PASOK, without necessarily separating themselves from the government coalition. Besides, there are important party members in the periphery of the party, awaiting the decisions of those inside, to see whether they will return, or if they will meet in new circumstances.