PASOK unites at conference
PASOK’s national conference had «put an end to navel-gazing, an end to personal strategies, an end to defeatism,» Prime Minister Costas Simitis said on Saturday. The organizational conference, aimed at working out strategy for the October local and regional elections, came after the breakthrough against domestic terrorism and an agreement with party notables last Monday that they would not question Simitis’s leadership if the party did badly in the local polls. PASOK is trailing the conservative New Democracy party by up to 9.5 percent in opinion polls. In his two speeches, Simitis said the target in the local polls was victory. He made clear he will lead PASOK in the 2004 national elections, warned dissenters that they damaged their own cause by standing back from difficult choices, and declared that he would not water down his policies in order to win votes at the economy’s expense. Simitis accused «conservative personalities» of allegedly trying to play down the success against terrorism. «With statements and insinuations to the media they try to cast shadows on PASOK’s present and past,» he said.
