PASOK-Potami alliance faces many obstacles
The chances of PASOK and To Potami cooperating seem slim at the moment due to differences of opinion between the two parties’ leaders about how to proceed.
Sources said on Wednesday that PASOK leader Fofi Gennimata wants the two parties to hold a common congress to lay the foundations for them working together in the future. Potami’s Stavros Theodorakis, though, wants to follow a different approach, whereby a discussion involving all centrist groupings takes place.
Also, Theodorakis appears interested in the creation of a new reformist movement rather than an attempt to revive the center-left. Sources close to the Potami leader said there is no point in forging an alliance with PASOK if it does not have clear reformist goals and just so their coalition can gain “6 or 7 percent of the vote.”
Gennimata, however, is not interested in working with other centrist groups, such as the small pro-business party Drassi.
The PASOK leader seems more interested in attracting disgruntled SYRIZA voters.
Potami MP Haris Theoharis, who quit as the party’s parliamentary spokesman on Tuesday, warned on Wednesday that the grouping needs to make several changes to secure its survival.
“I did not question the [party] leadership but criticized two or three specific policy decisions,” he said. “If we do not correct these mistakes, Potami will disappear.”
