Nikos Androulakis elected Greek socialist leader

SManalysis

by GCT

Greece’s third-largest group in parliament on Sunday elected a European Parliament lawmaker as its new leader.

Nikos Androulakis beat former Prime Minister George Papandreou to lead the Movement for Change, a socialist coalition.

Partial results shortly before 9 p.m. (1900 GMT; 2 p.m. EST) showed the 42-year-old Androulakis with 68.4% of the vote compared to 31.6% for the 69-year-old Papandreou. Papandreou called his opponent to congratulate him.

Androulakis, a civil engineer, began his political career as a leader of the youth wing of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, or PASOK, one of the parties in the Movement for Change.

With 22 lawmakers in the 300-member Greek Parliament, Movement for Change is Greece’s third-largest political grouping behind ruling conservative New Democracy and left-wing Syriza. It gained 8.1% of the vote in Greece’s last national election, in July 2019.

The socialist PASOK ruled Greece from 1981-89, 1993-2004, 2009-11 and 2011-15 – the last four years in coalition with New Democracy.