Party cadres challenge PASOK’s leader

The rumbling since Sunday's European election - in which socialist PASOK remained stranded in third place, with only a slight increase in its percentage - was finally given voice on Wednesday by senior party official Odysseas Konstantinopoulos, who openly raised the issue of Nikos Androulakis' leadership, calling for the immediate launch of procedures leading to elections for a leader in 2024.

He was followed shortly afterward by Nikos Papandreou, who moved in the same direction, and the issue quickly gained traction, with successive senior PASOK executives coming out openly in favor of a leadership election by the end of December.

In his letter to the members of the Political Council, which will meet early next week, Konstantinopoulos stated that "this is the third election under the current leadership, and the picture in urban centers is the same terms of...