Frenzy of revelations
PASOK is now certainly heading toward electoral defeat, fatally wounded by the same problem that it itself cultivated during Simitis’s eight-year term in government: the corruption of its cadres which has been demonstrated so clearly for us by the Pachtas affair – a revelation which had the effect of a political time bomb even though it is a mere trifle compared to the various deeds of high-profile PASOK ministers up until now. The serving of one’s own interests has become synonymous with the ruling party exercising its power, and it is here that we can observe the inexperience of the pre-annointed PASOK president George Papandreou who rushed to join the succession race and is now obliged to defend all the deeds of a government steeped in sin. The mild pre-election contest which Papandreou had planned has been transformed into a series of harsh revelations with PASOK officials «nailing» each other mercilessly and without shame. One of the leading players in this frenzy of revelations is the Achaia deputy Alekos Chrysanthakopoulos – until recently a close colleague of Papandreou’s and probably best known in connection with an illegal gambling scandal – who implicated his own leader in the Steggos affair. As Chrysanthakopoulos himself said, some people might try to reveal close ties between the Patras businessman and Simitis’s successor as PASOK leader. Such behavior is simply testimony to the tension being provoked within the ruling party by any attempts to tackle a fundamental problem.
