Three-day PASOK congress kicks off Friday
PASOK-KINAL’s congress kicks off Friday at the Tae Kwon Do stadium at the southern suburb of Faliro.
The three-day event is seen as an opportunity for the once-dominant socialist party, currently polling behind ruling New Democracy conservatives and leftist SYRIZA, to rally its fighting forces and protect itself as an independent political force.
More than 170,000 members earlier this month voted to bring back the PASOK name along with the trademark rising green sun emblem. The decision signalled a return to the political legacy of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement founded by the late Andreas Papandreou in 1974.
Party leader Nikos Androulakis, an MEP, will deliver a speech Friday at 8 p.m.
Ex-prime minister Costas Simitis will deliver greetings on the same day. Another former prime minister, George Papandreou, and Evangelos Venizelos, former deputy prime minister, will also address the event Saturday.
A vote to elect PASOK-KINAL’s new central committee will be held on the last day of the congress, Sunday.
