Greek government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis accused PASOK and its leader, Nikos Androulakis, of turning the party into a "satellite" of former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, after PASOK MP Apostolos Panas said he saw room for the party to cooperate with Tsipras's ELAS.
Marinakis, who holds the post of deputy minister to the prime minister, set out his criticism in a written statement on 15 September, responding to an interview Panas gave to the television channel of the financial newspaper Naftemporiki.
A journalist on the programme asked Panas directly whether PASOK might work with ELAS. Panas answered that he saw ELAS as a party that moves along the axis of social democracy, adding that there was no point in making statements without any real political basis, and asking what harm there would be in saying so plainly.
Marinakis said the comment did not stand on its own. He cast it as the latest sign of a wider drift by PASOK toward populism and extreme rhetoric.
The remarks followed an earlier report the same day describing Panas as stirring fresh controversy within PASOK over the question of cooperation with Tsipras.
Marinakis's full statement
In his statement, Marinakis said Panas's remarks had landed just days after PASOK itself had claimed that Tsipras had copied 80% of its political programme. Panas, he said, had now supplied the missing 20%.
He said nobody needed Panas's statement to see that Androulakis's PASOK had slid onto the road of populism and extreme rhetoric. According to Marinakis, the party had first embraced conspiracy theories about wooden railway sleepers and missing train carriages linked to the Tempi rail tragedy. It had then signed a motion of no confidence against the government together with some of Parliament's most extreme voices. Most significantly, he said, PASOK was now applying to the letter what he called the "money tree" economic recipes associated with the radical left.
It was now clear, Marinakis concluded, that Androulakis's PASOK had become a "satellite" party of Tsipras.
What Panas told Naftemporiki
Speaking to Naftemporiki TV about a possible alliance with ELAS, Panas pointed to what he called the "historical roots" shared by the two parties.
He added that neighbouring political forces ought to stay in communication with each other. Government officials said this overlooked comments by ELAS figures, including Theoni Koufonikolakou, who has said that ELAS and PASOK do not, in fact, occupy neighbouring political ground.
PASOK calls the remarks personal
PASOK officials described Panas's comments as his own personal opinion. For the government camp, however, the remark amounted to what it called a clear admission by Panas that PASOK's real aim is cooperation with Tsipras.
PASOK's leadership, based on Charilaou Trikoupi Street in Athens, likewise characterised the MP's position as personal. Panas had spoken in favour of cooperating with Tsipras's party on condition that PASOK itself finishes as the largest party in a future election. Video of Panas making the comments was published alongside the report.
PASOK is Greece's socialist party, currently led by Nikos Androulakis. Alexis Tsipras served as Greek prime minister between 2015 and 2019 as leader of Syriza and now heads ELAS, the Greek Left Coalition. Marinakis speaks for the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The Tempi rail tragedy refers to a fatal train collision near the town of Tempi in 2023 that remains a highly sensitive political issue in Greece.
