Milena Apostolaki, a PASOK-Movement for Change member of parliament for the Athens B1 Northern Sector, ruled out any future governing partnership with New Democracy, saying it would be contradictory for her party to fight to overturn the ruling party only to then join it in government.
Apostolaki made the comments in an interview with journalist Giorgos Sarris at the Newsbeast stand during the 90th Thessaloniki International Fair, speaking a few hours before PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis was due to deliver his own speech at the event.
Alternative governing program
The MP said she would announce an alternative program of governance and described an outright PASOK election victory as a difficult but achievable goal. She said this year's fair marked the end of an electoral cycle and, her party hoped, the beginning of a political change.
She said Androulakis would present the country's alternative program for governance, arguing that the prime minister had framed a dilemma in a way that inverted reality. In her words, continuing what the country has experienced in recent years is itself the risky adventure, and PASOK would present a progressive governing solution along with specific commitments for its first pieces of legislation.
Apostolaki said those first legislative interventions would signal the shift from an economy in which inequalities are widening to a new model serving social convergence. She added that PASOK's program would also include measures to restore the rule of law and strengthen democratic institutions.
Polls called extremely fluid
Asked whether her party had managed to convince voters despite its standing in opinion polls, Apostolaki described the political landscape as extremely fluid. She said polls were a useful tool but did not always capture sentiment that only shows up at the ballot box.
She noted that a poll had recently been published measuring public reaction to Androulakis's appearance at the Thessaloniki fair before he had even given his speech. She said her party studied polls carefully and read them closely, but that they often failed to register what remains unexpressed, adding that PASOK was focused on the decisive vote at the ballot box.
Apostolaki acknowledged that winning first place was a high and difficult target but said it was achievable, arguing that the demand for political change now commanded majority support. She said no one could change people's lives or the course of a country's history from second place, and that traveling around Greece had shown her the demand for political change was not a minority view but a majority one.
Ruling out a repeat of the memorandum-era coalition
The conversation then turned to possible post-election alliances, and specifically whether PASOK could once again form a coalition government with New Democracy, as it did during the years of Greece's bailout memorandums. Apostolaki said that cooperation took place under entirely different and extremely critical conditions.
She described it as a choice of responsibility made at a very heavy cost that is, in her words, still being paid. She said it was the choice to co-govern with PASOK's political and ideological opponent at a critical period for the country's European orientation and its accumulated gains, made once, under conditions of national bankruptcy and extreme social crisis, and that it did not alter PASOK's identity.
She firmly excluded any renewed cooperation with New Democracy, even if a coalition government were required after the next election. She said it would be contradictory to fight to overturn their political and ideological opponent, as they are doing today, only to end up cooperating with that opponent, adding that PASOK's fight is to overturn New Democracy's policies.
Not ruling in cooperation with the left
Asked whether this stance opened the door to cooperation with parties of the left, Apostolaki avoided pre-determining post-election developments. She said PASOK's goal remained first place, while an outright parliamentary majority currently appeared unattainable for any political force.
She said PASOK wanted to be the catalyst for change, noting that New Democracy, despite a significant decline in its electoral and political influence, still led in the polls, and that PASOK was fighting to achieve that reversal.
Apostolaki said PASOK's government program, with the specific priorities to be presented by Androulakis, would be a fixed and non-negotiable basis for any post-election talks if the party succeeded. She said everything else could not be discussed today, before the election result and the shape of the new political landscape were known.
She confirmed she would again be a candidate in the Athens Northern Sector.
