The die is cast: Papandreou to run for centre-left KINAL leadership

By Dimitris Chondros

Former prime minister George Papandreou is poised to announce his candidacy for the leadership of the centre left Movement for Change party (KINAL).

Papandreou held talks with all the other candidates over the weekend and today, when he met with MEP Nikos Androulakis and Vasilis Kegeroglou, the secretary of KINAL’s parliamentary group.

By all accounts, Papandreou is expected to announce his candidacy today, on the anniversary of Andreas Papandreou’s rise to power in 1981.

As of yesterday, there were feverish consultations within the party due to Papandreou’s initiative to play a unifying role in the run-up to the leadership election.

Most party cadres viewed his tweet on the anniversary of PASOK’s landslide victory in the 1981 general election as presaging his expected candidacy

His statement that 18 October, 2021, is the “starting point for new battles for us to construct a progressive [governance] prospect” fueled scenarios over the last days that the former PM may make his announcement even today.

In the party, those scenarios caused a commotion which grew even more intense when Papandreou’s associate Katerina Batzeli said that it is possible that he may announce his candidacy even today.

Associates of Papandreou told To Vima that the tweet and the excerpt from it are unrelated to his decision to be a candidate.

Still, everyone in KINAL considers Papandreou’s candidacy certain and the only question is when he will announce it.

Mr Papandreou’s tweet is as follows:

“18 October, 1981, a day of  victory of the Greek people and of democracy. 18 October, 2021. [It is] the start of new battles for us to construct a progressive prospect, and lead the country with certainty into a future with great challenges, definitively changing the fate of the Greek people.”