SYNASPISMOSOctober 2002
Local Elections Success for SYN

Local elections, municipal and prefectural, took place in Greece on 13 and 20 October 2002.

Overall SYNASPISMOS and allied forces of the left and ecology have emerged from these elections as the third political force on both local authority levels in terms of elected mayors, prefects and councilors.

In its first meeting after the local elections the SYN Political Secretariat stated that:

“In connection with the overall electoral result we want to draw attention to some central points:

1. The government policy creates acute displeasure in the large majority of the Greek people. The rural communities, the middle class families, the young people experience the difficult and unjust reality of everyday life which is far removed from the government rhetoric.

2. The two-party system favours New Democracy’s aim to appear as the only alternative solution despite the fact that it supports the original neo-liberal policies.

The points made above determine that the political issues on the agenda after the local and prefectural elections are the following:

These great needs cannot be substituted neither by communication performances of the television democracy nor by dangerous games with the extreme right.”

The two major parties, PASOK and N.D, tried to conduct their campaigns in a way reminiscent of national elections in order to polarize the elections. In this way a shift to the right was registered, despite the fact that PASOK managed to win the region of Athens-Piraeus with a list headed by its MP Ms. F.Gennimata.

SYNASPISMOS emphasized the special character of the elections and put forward ideas and policies in relation to local government without understanding central government policy consequences in local communities. On this basis it follows a flexible policy of local alliances with a varied way of political and social forces and this approach proved quite successful.

Left successes

Manolis Glezos, a prominent and internationally known figure of the Greek Left, stood as an independent for the post of President of the expanded Athens - Piraeus Prefecture, by far the biggest Greek region. Synaspismos as well as other left forces participated in the “Space of Dialogue and Common Action of the Left” supported his candidature.SYNASPISMOS and other forces of the democratic, radical and ecological left supported for the enlarged Prefecture of Athens-Piraeus the independent candidancy of prominent resistance fighter Manolis Glezos He fought the election on a platform for left unity and polled 10,8 % (well above the previous SYN performance). On the contrary the KKE-DIKKI candidate Th.Pafilis got 8,8%, a substantial decrease from the 1998 percentage of these parties (11,3% and 3,7%).

The PASOK candidate won this election in the second round (40,1% in the first), while the N.D candidate Y.Tzannetakos did badly with only 26,7% and this was due to the high percentage (almost 14%) of the extreme right candidate G. Karatzaferis.

Fotis Kouvelis, M.P., Political Secretariat member of SYNASPISMOS and former President of the Athens Lawyer Association is leading a movement called “The Other Athens”, which includes a broad spectrum of left and progressive citizens, who are active in social, ecological, cultural and community movements.For the Athens Municipality the results in the first round were: D.Bakoyianni (N.D) 47,4%, Ch.Papoutsis (PASOK) 25,9%, Y.Dimaras (DIKKI) 11,9%, Sp.Chalvatzis (KKE) 6%, Fotis Kouvelis (SYN and other left forcest) 5,9%. In the run-off D. Bakoyianni was elected to the post of Mayor with 60%.

In Piraeus the results were: Ch.Agrapidis (N.D) 47,4%, M.Bendeniotis (PASOK) 34,3% and third came Th.Dritsas (supported by SYN, AKOA, KEDA and others) with a good result of 7,5%. The KKE-DIKKI candidate C.Tzatzanis did worse than in 1998 with only 6,2%. Mayor was elected the N.D candidate in the second round.

For the post of the Mayor of Thessalonica Synaspismos supported Professor Anastasio Kourakis.In Thessaloniki V. Papageorgopoulos (N.D) was re-elected from the first round with 54,2%. Sp.Vougias (PASOK) got 27,9%, A.Sahinis (KKE-DIKKI) 9,5%, Anastasios Kourakis (SYN and other left and ecological forces) 6,3%.

It is worth noting two out of fifty four prefects belong to SYNASPISMOS Ch.Hatzopoulos of Evros - Rodopi, who was joint supported by SYN and PASOK, and G.Katsanevakis, prefect of Chania (Crete), who was supported only by SYNASPISMOS and was elected in a run-off against a PASOK candidate.

Seven more Prefects belonging to PASOK were elected in Cooperation with SYNASPISMOS.

Municipality gains

Important successes were scored by SYNASPISMOS and allied left and ecological forces at the municipal level.

Ten municipalities of Prefecture capitals were won through different cooperations. Party members were elected Mayors in three of them (Elefsina, Pallini, Preveza). Party members were also elected in the traditional left stronghold of Kessariani, in Rentis (Piraeus), and Kalyvia (Attica) and mayors closely related with SYN in N. Smirni, Petroupolis, Lykovrisi and other places in many parts of Greece.

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