![Stavros Theodorakis 2014a cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Stavros_Theodorakis_2014a_cropped.jpg)
The River ( el, Το Ποτάμι, To Potami, ) was a
centrist
Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the l ...
and
social-liberal
Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...
political party in Greece
Prior to the 2012 elections the characteristic Greek political system was a two-party system. The historically dominant parties have been New Democracy and the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK). Under the electoral system a party needs to s ...
. The party was founded in February 2014 by
Stavros Theodorakis
Stavros Theodorakis ( ; born 1963) is a Greek journalist and politician, who founded and led the social liberal party ''To Potami'' (''The River''). In the January 2015 election he was elected to the Hellenic parliament, with his party receivin ...
. The party did not run in the 2019 elections and had no seats in the
Hellenic Parliament
The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule (ancient Greece), Boule of the Greeks, Hellenes, label=none), also kno ...
.
History
Party foundation
The party was launched on 11 March 2014 in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
by TV presenter
Stavros Theodorakis
Stavros Theodorakis ( ; born 1963) is a Greek journalist and politician, who founded and led the social liberal party ''To Potami'' (''The River''). In the January 2015 election he was elected to the Hellenic parliament, with his party receivin ...
.
2014 European Parliament election
In April 2014 representatives of The River met the
President of the European Parliament
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
,
Martin Schulz
Martin Schulz (born 20 December 1955) is a German politician who served as Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2017 to 2018, and was a Member of the Bundestag (MdB) from 2017 to 2021. Previously he was President of the European Parliame ...
, and with representatives of the
Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) is the political group in the European Parliament of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats was officially founded as a Socialist ...
(S&D),
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE; french: Alliance des Démocrates et des Libéraux pour l'Europe, ADLE) is a transnational alliance between two European political parties, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Euro ...
(ALDE) and
The Greens–European Free Alliance
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
(Greens/EFA) parliamentary groups.
In the
2014 European Parliament election
The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014.
It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...
held on 25 May 2014, the party received 6.6% of the national vote and the mandate to elect two
MEPs,
Giorgos Grammatikakis
Giorgos Grammatikakis (; born 21 May 1939, in Heraklion) is a Greek physicist, writer, and the dean emeritus of the University of Crete. In 2014, he was elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
Life
Giorgos Grammatikakis was born in Hera ...
and
Miltos Kyrkos
Miltos Kyrkos (; born 1 April 1959) is a Greek chemical engineer and politician of To Potami. In 2014, he was elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
Life
Miltos Kyrkos was born in Athens as the son of the leftist politician and former ...
.
On 27 May 2014, the two incoming MEPs announced their decision to sit with the S&D group in the European Parliament, whose intake included two MEPs from the
Panhellenic Socialist Movement
The Panhellenic Socialist Movement ( el, Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK, (; , ) is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012, it ...
(PASOK),
citing the group's commitment to "tackling the recession and unemployment in Greece and the South in general", while ruling out joining the
Party of European Socialists
The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party.
The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom ...
.
2015 legislative elections
On 24 December 2014, the newly founded party
Reformers for Democracy and Development
The Reformers for Democracy and Development (Greek: Μεταρρυθμιστές της Αριστεράς για τη Δημοκρατία και την Ανάπτυξη) was a Greek political movement founded on 21 October 2014 by Spyros Lykoudi ...
of former
Democratic Left (DIMAR) MP
Spyros Lykoudis
Spyros Lykoudis (born 1945), a Greek politician, has been a political activist of the Renewing Left for five decades. He was elected a Member of the Hellenic National Parliament with the Democratic Left (DIMAR), assuming office on May 27, 2012, ...
announced an alliance with The River.
On 5 January 2015, the
Liberal Alliance party suspended talks about a joint electoral list with The River after the participation of Liberal Alliance's president
Gregory Vallianatos had reportedly been ruled out by The River officials. Later, The River's leader Theodorakis and
Theodoros Skylakakis
Theodoros Skilakakis (born October 18, 1959) is Alternate Minister for Fiscal Policy of the Hellenic Republic in the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, where he holds the portfolio of Government Expenditure. He is also a former Greek MEP, mem ...
, the leader of the liberal party
Drasi
Drassi (, "Action") was a liberal political party in Greece. The party was founded in 2009 by Stefanos Manos and was led by former New Democracy member Theodoros Skylakakis.
The party had no representation in the Hellenic Parliament or European ...
, gave a joint press conference announcing a joint
electoral list
An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...
for the forthcoming legislative election.
In the
January 2015 legislative election on 25 January 2015 The River received 6.1% of the electoral vote, finishing fourth place with a mandate for 17 seats in the
Hellenic Parliament
The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule (ancient Greece), Boule of the Greeks, Hellenes, label=none), also kno ...
. In the aftermath of the election party leader Theodorakis stressed that Greece needed to avoid another
snap election
A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled.
Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...
,
and while ready to talk with SYRIZA leader
Alexis Tsipras
Alexis Tsipras ( el, Αλέξης Τσίπρας, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician serving as Leader of the Official Opposition since 2019. He served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019.
Tsipras has led the Coalition of th ...
about forming a
coalition government
A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...
,
he said they wouldn't support any coalition that includes anti-European forces.
The River became part of the parliamentary opposition to the governing
first Tsipras cabinet
Following his victory in legislative elections held on 25 January 2015, the newly elected Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appointed a new cabinet to succeed the cabinet of Antonis Samaras, his predecessor. A significant reshuffle took place on 17 ...
.
In the second election of the year, the
September 2015 legislative election on 20 September 2015, the party received a reduced vote count of 4.1%, receiving 11 seats, remaining in opposition.
Resignations
On 19 April 2016, Yiannis Theoharis resigned from To Potami's parliamentary group.
On 18 October 2016, Iasonas Fotilas was expelled from the party. On 24 January 2017, he joined
New Democracy
New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...
.
On 21 November 2016, Katerina Markou declared herself an independent. On 27 February 2018, she joined
New Democracy
New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...
.
On 13 January 2017, Rodopi MP
Ilhan Ahmet became the fourth MP elected in the September 2015 general election to resign from the party. He later announced he was joining the
Democratic Alignment parliamentary group.
On 7 February 2017,
Larissa
Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...
MP Konstantinos Bargiotas resigned from the party, indicating that he would join the
Democratic Alignment parliamentary group.
Movement for Change
In July 2017, PASOK leader
Fofi Gennimata
Fotini "Fofi" Gennimata ( ; 17 November 1964 – 25 October 2021) was a Greek politician who served as president of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) from 2015 to 2021. During her tenure as party leader, she also co-founded and led the ...
announced the formation of a new centre-left party before the end of the year. In the summer of 2017, Potami leader Stavros Theodorakis decided to participate in the creation of the party to provide an alternative to
Syriza
The Coalition of the Radical Left – Progressive Alliance ( el, Συνασπισμός Ριζοσπαστικής Αριστεράς – Προοδευτική Συμμαχία, Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás – Proodeftikí Simachía), ...
, led by prime minister
Alexis Tsipras
Alexis Tsipras ( el, Αλέξης Τσίπρας, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician serving as Leader of the Official Opposition since 2019. He served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019.
Tsipras has led the Coalition of th ...
, and
New Democracy
New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...
, led by
Kyriakos Mitsotakis
Kyriakos Mitsotakis ( el, Κυριάκος Μητσοτάκης, ; born 4 March 1968) is a Greek politician serving as the prime minister of Greece since 8 July 2019. A member of the New Democracy (Greece), New Democracy, he has been its presi ...
. A leadership election for the new party will be held on 12 November and 19 November 2017, with initially 10 candidates declaring their participation, including Theodorakis. After the leadership election both Potami and PASOK–DIMAR will continue to have separate parliamentary groups until the new party's founding congress in spring 2018.
On the first stage open primary election on 12 November 2017, Theodorakis came in fourth place with 9.8% of the vote, failing to reach the second round.
The run-off election on 19 November was won by Gennimata with 56% of the vote, with the new party's official foundation scheduled for 2018.
On 2 December 2017, Theodorakis was announced as being part of the six-member ruling council for the new party, the
Movement for Change
Movement may refer to:
Common uses
* Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece
* Motion, commonly referred to as movement
Arts, entertainment, and media
Literature
* "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...
(KINAL).
Aftermath
On 1 July 2018, The River exited from KINAL due to issues including disagreements between Theodorakis and Gennimata over the
Macedonia naming dispute
The use of the country name "Macedonia (terminology), Macedonia" was disputed between Greece and the North Macedonia, Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) between 1991 and 2019. The dispute was a source of instability in the Balkans#W ...
.
In the
2019 European Parliament election
The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peopl ...
on 26 May 2019, To Potami received just 1.5% of the national vote, failing to return any MEPs. Following the result, party leader Stavros Theodorakis announced that the party would not participate in the
2019 legislative election as well as his resignation as leader.
Ideology
Following its launch, To Potami was initially described by the media as
pro-European
Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Polit ...
and
centrist
Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the l ...
,
inspired by
social democracy
Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...
and
social liberalism
Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...
and heavily reliant on Theodorakis' personal popularity to attract voters.
It has been also described as
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
. The general description of the party's political position ranged from
centrist
Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the l ...
to
centre-left
Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The c ...
.
Election results
Hellenic Parliament
European Parliament
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:River
Liberal parties in Greece
Social democratic parties in Greece
Secular parties in Greece
Multicultural parties in Greece
Social liberal parties
2014 establishments in Greece
2014 in Greek politics
Political parties established in 2014
2019 in Greek politics
Political parties disestablished in 2019
Parties represented in the European Parliament
Defunct political parties in Greece
Centrist parties in Greece