2024 PASOK – KINAL Leadership Election

The 2024 PASOK – Movement for Change leadership election took place on the 6th of October 2024, with a second round on the 13th of the same month, in order to elect the president of PASOK – Movement for Change.

It was triggered on June 30, following internal pressure on the incumbent President Nikos Androulakis, regarding the coalition's mediocre performance at the 2024 EU elections.

Six candidates stood: Nikos Androulakis, Pavlos Geroulanos, Nadia Giannakopoulou, Anna Diamantopoulou, Haris Doukas, and Michalis Katrinis.

Androulakis came first in the first round, and beat Doukas in the second round with almost 60% of the vote. As such, he was re-elected leader.

Background

Previous leadership election

Back in December 2021, leadership elections for KINAL took place in order to succeed Fofi Gennimata to the leadership of KINAL after her first term. She herself ran for a second term, but withdrew due to health issues, and passed away on 25 October. The other candidates were Nikos Androulakis, George Papandreou, Andreas Loverdos, Pavlos Christidis, Pavlos Geroulanos, and Haris Kastanidis. The first two made it to the runoff, where Androulakis won with 139.492 votes and 67,17% of the vote, against 66.847 votes and 32,19% of the vote that Papandreou gathered.

2022-2023

In May 2022, in an internal referendum, it was decided to rename the coalition to “PASOK – Movement for Change” and ¬to bring back the green rising sun, the famous historic emblem of PASOK. In the same month the 3rd Congress of the party was held. Changes were made to the statute, and its work was concluded with the election of the members of the Central Political Committee.

In the May elections, PASOK – KINAL received 11,46% of the voted and elected 41 MPs. As no party had reached an absolute majority, and there was no means to form a coalition government, as a Proportional Representation system was in place at the time, a caretaker government was formed, and fresh elections were called. In the June elections the party's percentage slightly rose to 11,84%, electing 32 MPs. As of this moment, it is the third largest parliamentary force. A few days after the elections, Andreas Loverdos, a historical senior member of the party, and twice a candidate for the leadership, (2015, 2021), resigned from the party, citing political reasons.

2024

Before the European Parliament elections, Androulakis had set as a target for PASOK to become the second party with a percentage higher than the 2019 EU elections (7,72%) and the legislative ones in 2023 (11,46% and 11,84% in May and in June). After the EU elections, where PASOK reached third place with a percentage of 12,79%, electing 3 MEPs, MPs and senior members declared their disappointment towards the electoral result, criticizing Androulakis's policy, blaming him for the result and raising the issue of leadership.

Manolis Christodoulakis, who also raised the issue of leadership, and was a prominent person to jump into the race for the leadership, in the end backed Haris Doukas in a Video posted to his social media, along with an appropriate article.

Although Androulakis stated that he would not go into early leadership elections, waiting for the planned (according to the statute) elections in October 2025, on the meeting of the Central Political Committee of the party on June 30, proposed (and were later accepted by the CPC) elections on 6 October, with a runoff a week later, on 13 October.

The same day, in speeches to the meeting of the CPC, Haris Doukas, the Mayor of Athens, and former minister and MP for Athens A, Pavlos Geroulanos, both announced their candidacies.

The next day, MP for Athens B1, Milena Apostolaki, and MP for Elis, Michalis Katrinis, also announced their candidacies.

On July 3, MP for Athens B2 Nadia Giannakopoulou, and the journalist and war correspondent Yannis Kanellakis, also announced their candidacies.

On July 16, former European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Anna Diamantopoulou, declared her candidacy in a video post.

On July 24, Milena Apostolaki withdrew her candidacy.

On September 9, the required signatures of the candidates were submitted and the nominations of six candidates were formalised. Yannis Kanellakis was left out of the race, who noted in a letter that he had the 5,000 signatures of members, but did not submit them to the relevant committee to protect their personal information.

Candidates

Withdrawn/Rejected Candidates

Opinion polling

The results of the polls are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order, showing the most recent first, using the date of publication. Polls show data collected by polling companies among PASOK - Movement for Change voters/supporters and the general population as well.

First round

Second round

Androulakis vs. Doukas

Other scenarios

Androulakis vs. Diamantopoulou

Androulakis vs. Geroulanos

Diamantopoulou vs. Doukas

Diamantopoulou vs. Geroulanos

Doukas vs. Geroulanos

Results

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2024 PASOK - KINAL leadership election
2024 in Greece
2024 in Greek politics
Political party leadership elections in Greece
PASOK
2024 political party leadership elections