Greek centre-left leadership election

PASOK, Greece's once-dominant socialist party, will hold an extraordinary party congress at the Peace and Friendship Stadium (SEF) in Neo Faliro on November 23 and 24, the party's congress organizing committee said.
Works will open at 5 p.m. on Saturday with an address by party leader Fofi Gennimata and conclude on Sunday at 6 p.m.

Center-left Movement for Change (KINAL), which is polling in third place ahead of national elections in July, was in a state of upheaval on Sunday after two candidates and a party cadre quit in protest at the withdrawal of socialist heavyweight Evangelos Venizelos. 

Evangelos Venizelos, a former leader of the socialist PASOK party, and foreign minister, has quit the Movement for Change (KINAL), the socialist alliance that got third place in last week's European Parliament election.

With Greece gearing up for ballots next month, ruling SYRIZA is trying to expand its electoral catchment by rebranding its image as a "progressive" political force.

New Democracy appears to be considering a proposal by Constitutional Law Professor Nikos Alivizatos for a "mini-review" of the Greek Constitution that could be initiated by the main opposition party and the Movement for Change coalition of centrist and center-left parties.

Greece's new center-left Movement for Change wrapped up its inaugural conference in Athens on Saturday. Officials unveiled the party's new logo, a rose in red, blue and green.

Earlier, the party's charter and policy program was approved by the overwhelming majority of members.

The Greek government has "completed its lifecycle" and anyone who helps it stay in power will be making a "historic mistake," Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis, who is also a member of the new center-left Movement for Change's political council, said on Friday in response to a question about whether he would consider working with the ruling leftist SYRIZA party.

Greece's new center-left grouping, Movement for Change, has unveiled its political council, which is the first element of the new party's structure and its key decision-making body.

Fofi Genimata, the leader of the new center-left party, Movement for Change, said on Wednesday that the members of its political council will be announced on Friday.

Kathimerini understands that the council will be small and will include the main proponents for the new party's creation and the candidates that ran for its leadership.

The name of the new center-left party comprising PASOK, To Potami and other social democratic forces will be Movement for Change, it emerged on Tuesday following a meeting in Parliament between PASOK leader Fofi Gennimata and the head of Potami, Stavros Theodorakis.

The name will be in use until the grouping's first congress, when it is expected that it will be rubber-stamped.