A. Loverdos: I will not even discuss co-government with SYRIZA

The PASOK was and will become the spokesman of the Democratic Party again, says Andreas Loverdos, candidate for president of PASOK and not of KINAL, as he fights as he states “for the total restoration of PASOK”.

Mr. Loverdos, when asked about his differentiation in Parliament from his party, voting in favor of the tightening of the penal code, stressed that: “I have spoken from the first moment about a patriotic, reformist, progressive party. According to these characteristics it will be the opposition that we will exercise if the citizens prefer me: responsible, reformist, serious and effective “.

Regarding the major issue of post-election cooperation, he clarifies that: “co-government with SYRIZA in my days, if I prefer, will not just exist but not even be discussed” while rejecting corresponding scenarios of cooperation with the N.D. ., explaining that no candidate for leadership sets a “conservative governance scenario”.

Interview with Niki Zorba

You are claiming the leadership of PASOK and not the recovery of KINAL, as you have repeatedly clarified. What is your political position vis-των-vis the other candidates?

I am fighting for the total restoration with PASOK. We will retrieve our symbols and our name because we have no reason to be ashamed of what we have offered in the place. We changed and modernized Greece and kept it upright in its most difficult times. We never fled, ignoring the cost, always advocating the homeland and society. I am proud to be PASOK. After the crisis, the people now realize it. Now the citizens do not judge us but they compare us and we excel. They want to get away from the dipole of populism and maintenance. That is why we are returning with PASOK, not to take a retro dive into the past but to go again in front of Greece and the social democracy of the 21st century. PASOK was and will once again become the spokesman of the Democratic Party.

– Apart from the name, what else will you change if you become a leader?

On December 5, we overthrow the party mechanisms. We return PASOK to where it belongs, to the people, to its members. The PASOK of the 21st century will be a modern active organization. We unplug the party mechanisms, which control everything and expel the citizens to keep their rusty chairs. We cut the dependencies with all kinds of interests with a knife. We say yes to a collective, open, participatory, cinematic party. An open and digital party of direct Democracy in making decisions for a better tomorrow. Everything from the beginning, everything from the base, all the instruments elected.

– Recently you differed from the line of your party and voted in Parliament to tighten the penal code, leaving even tips for the position taken by KINAL. Is this a qualifier and a “message” about how you will move the next day?

As I said in Parliament, I gave absolutely my own element of my political identity as a free man and as a member of parliament. I acted according to my conscience without fear and passion, as nothing binds me. I find it inconceivable that there should be positions on the issue on other issues at a time when our late president had criticized the government on the same issue. Is it possible that there are MPs who did not vote for the regulation on the rape of minors and at the same time appear on television with tears about what is happening around us? Is it possible to say “no” and look for false excuses in pseudo-studies? Instead, we must restore the relationship of truth between politicians and citizens. I have spoken from the outset about a patriotic, reformist, progressive party. According to these characteristics, it will be the opposition that we will exercise if the citizens prefer me: responsible, reformist, serious and effective.

– Do you think that the unity in which you all belong is maintained, regardless of who will be in the leadership?

I can not imagine how any of us would leave the party after the election of the new leader. The struggle we are waging is for the rebirth of the party. As far as I am concerned, I approach him with a biography of unity and consistency. And for the next day I have spoken about the reorganization of PASOK from the beginning, about its democratic operation with all the elected bodies that will highlight trends and views in close connection with the citizens. In such a PASOK there will be no causes and reasons for fleeing, only pretexts.

– Your declared personal bet is to more than double the percentages of your party. The debate on post-election cooperation, however, is inevitably at the heart of this intra-party process: Are you closer to working with “center-left” or “center-right” forces?

We do not give PASOK to SYRIZA as we do not give our homeland to New Democracy. The term “progressive governance” was coined by Mr Tsipras. And personally to both Mr. Tsipras and those who use him, highlighting suspicious scenarios, I have answered without spin. All candidates have an obligation to the voters to be crystalline in their intentions. Let me be clear: co-government with SYRIZA in my day, if I prefer, is not going to just exist but not even be discussed. SYRIZA is not a progressive party. He has proved it. This issue has also been clarified by New Democracy, which has stated that it will seek immediate and immediate second elections and autonomy, and above all by all of us candidates who do not set a scenario of conservative governance. However, the reason why this disparaging question is recycled is the one that hurts me and at the same time makes me more stubborn. It is the low percentages that we record that allow “to whom will you become a purse?”. We will change that. I come forward to become a force of power and on the night of the national elections to ask others and not us. We will make it.

– Polls show increased interest in developments in your party. Where do you attribute it and how do you evaluate it?

They are the first signs of a dynamic that after the elections and depending on their outcome will be further strengthened. Society and the homeland need to break free from the grip of populism and conservatism. PASOK can provide this way out. To many of our fellow citizens who voted for ND simply for SYRIZA to leave, but also to many who voted for SYRIZA but do not return to a small party without perspective. And to even more, hundreds of thousands, who in recent years have abstained from elections because they find no expression in either party. In the elections of December 5, I call on the people to come en masse and vote so that with the PASOK of society we can crush the party mechanisms and open the way for the great reforms that the country needs.