The choice of members elected to serve in the representative organs of a political party always carries a particular symbolism and sends a message to its voters.The message that emerged from the weekend election of the Central Committee of centre-left PASOK-KINAL is that a new generation is taking over.Historic and well-known cadres are passing the torch to new ones, who will help the PASOK succeed in the future, after a dark decade of floundering that members hope will soon be a distant memory for the party.New realities are accompanied by new challenges.Those who under the leadership of Nikos Androulakis will lead PASOK into the difficult electoral campaign, with the current proportional representation election law, are not personally burdened by the mistakes that were unavoidably made by a party that was in power for so many years.The new cadres are fresh faces without much experience in politics, but also without a burdensome political past.The election of Nikos Androulakis as party leader was the motive force that brought a younger generation to the forefront.As the unifying climate of the recent convention demonstrated, those who chose to step aside to make room for new cadres for the sake of the party’s future will lend their support in this new beginning.With the party poised to wrap up its organisational loose ends soon, PASOK-KINAL will be free to focus on hammering out its political programme, which former Pasok finance minister Nikos Christodoulakis outlined recently.The creation of a new, productive Social Democratic party that will offer specific solutions to specific problems must be PASOK’s priority.There is no time to lose.
