Decline
Less than five months have passed since the Socialist government publicly expressed the view that by the coming June, PASOK would have narrowed the margin separating it from opposition New Democracy in opinion polls. The latest opinion polls show that the political momentum has remained unchanged. The opposition lead is widening by the day, and has reached nearly eight percentage points. ND’s lead undermines the Socialists’ chances of reversing the trend. The ruling party seems unable to transcend its internal contradictions. Instead, it seems to have become enmeshed in them, therefore reproducing typical signs of decline. The prime minister is far from controlling the game, as he bragged in the spring. His desperate attempts to regain control of the situation have, at best, won him some time. It is plain to all eyes that Costas Simitis is finding it increasingly difficult, not only to inspire or unite his party, but even to coordinate his government. The most essential problem is that the government’s reformist spirit has withered away. Only a small number of sectors are seeing some attempts at reform and solutions proposed to chronic problems. The overwhelming majority of ministers have been confined to simply managing state affairs. Over the last few months, government decisions have been clearly shaped by the priorities dictated by the impending battle in local and prefectural elections. Public fatigue and the widespread impression that PASOK is on the threshold of an electoral debacle have mobilized the party’s instinct of self-preservation. In this climate of party collapse, which is expected to intensify after the prospective defeat in the elections next October, the cleavages among the personal strategies of party barons are becoming more and more visible. Backstage intrigues over the succession feed the fragmentation and paralysis of the government. In the wake of local and prefectural elections, PASOK will most probably be subjected to intense internal rifts which will worsen its position in the political arena. Resorting to loose and populist tactics will not save Simitis’s Socialists. It will only disillusion those who voted for him in the past, and who had confidence in the prime minister’s reformist pledges.
