The results of the prefectural and municipal elections have created a new political landscape. Beyond the visible fluctuations in the various partiesÆ electorates, the major issue that has arisen after the elections concerns the general political prospects and the countryÆs course over the next few years.

1. The PASOK government suffered a significant political defeat, the repercussions of which will influence developments as a whole. The Greek people showed their disapproval of the governmentÆs policy, methods and overall picture. They showed clearly that they have not been convinced by the theories of the "only road" to EMU, and have sent a clear message to change the policy being implemented.

The electoral system and the general pattern of the two parties alternating in power, as well as the erroneous choices of other forces, made it possible for the ND û despite its own significant problems of identity, internal coherence and political credibility û to reap a significant part of the anti-government sentiment and to appear to be dynamically on the rise with the hope of ascending to power.

Thus the early assessment and warning by the SYN that the PASOK governmentÆs policy opens the way to conservative shifts and developments in the countryÆs political life as a whole has been vindicated.

2. The SYN, according to the final results of the prefectural and municipal elections, has become the third party in the field of local government.

The results are altogether positive for the SYNaspismos, despite significant problems in a number of municipalities, primarily its defeat in the City of Athens.

On the basis of GreeceÆs new local government map, the Synaspismos increased its presence in the field of local government. It more than doubled the number of mayors it supported, increased considerably the number of its prefectural councillors, and multiplied the number of its municipal councillors.

It showed a great potential for growth and for influencing dynamic social strata in local communities by participating in ballots of independent citizensÆ movements as the only political party (e.g. in the prefectures of Lesbos, Argolida, and Boeotia as well as in the municipalities of Thessaloniki, Naoussa, Aigaleo, Ioannina, Argos, Preveza, Ag. Nikolaos, Trikala, etc.)

It took part in cooperative efforts that won the election and is now sharing in the administration of many prefectures and municipalities (e.g. Magnesia, Hania, Grevena, Dodecanese, Thesprotia and others, as well as Livadia, Igoumenitsa, Nea Smyrni, Ag. Ioannis Redi, etc.)

It increased the number of its municipal and prefectural councillors, and maintained its ability to form multiple alliances thus ensuring its prospects of playing a significant political role.

It goes without saying that no complacency or smugness can be justified because within the generally positive picture there are also serious problems. In this new period, SYN must systematise its activity in the field of local government; it must overcome its deficiencies and dysfunctions and put forward a coherent programme for decentralisation, strengthening local government institutions and solving local problems.

3. After the results of the prefectural and municipal elections became known, the Synaspismos once again put its comprehensive alternative proposal before the Greek people and the political forces.

• The policy of the PASOK government has reached a dead end. During the two years it has been in power, PASOK has proved itself incapable of drafting a workable programme to transform the structures of Greek society and its economy with the prospect of ensuring the countryÆs European course on terms of real convergence. Such a programme would take the political, economic and social realities, and the national problems into account, and would be able to secure the approval of the Greek people.

It also been proved that the PASOK government is not in a position to implement a far-sighted and creative policy within the EU framework nor to defend effectively the need for a social shift in Europe or the particular interests of Greece, within the framework of the total European perspective.

Thus it has been led to a dogmatic, one-dimensional and mechanistic attachment to prescriptions of dubious effectiveness in its effort to meet the nominal convergence criteria that have resulted in the shrinking of the countryÆs productive base and the forced redistribution of the national income to the detriment of salaried workers, pensioners, the middle classes and farmers.

• The system of an absolute majority for one party and the alternation of two parties in power, which is supported to a great degree by the electoral law, distorts the processes taking place today throughout Greek society, pushes vital and creative forces to the sidelines and contributes to distancing the people from the parties and from politics. Thus popular discontent is growing, but instead of becoming a creative force seeking and promoting constructive changes, it is in danger of becoming a blind force for overall dispute, rejecting everything, and a field where neo-conservative phenomena are hatched. The increased abstension from voting, the number of invalid and blank ballots cast in these elections, and the reinforcement of viewpoints that are against the parties and against politics more generally confirm this point of view.

• The search for a way out must move simultaneously in both of two directions:
  toward defeating and changing the policies being pursued and the system by which the country is governed, and
  toward the redrafting of the policy that guides GreeceÆs path to Economic and Monetary Union and European integration.

These two processes are interrelated and inseparable.

The SYNaspismos assesses that, in this crucial period the country is now going through, only a new majority that will reflect the total of the progressive forces and be expressed in a government of broad cooperation would be able to chart and implement a new political line capable of inspiring and mobilising the Greek people.

This assessment starts out from the failure of government policy, the major and difficult problems the country is facing, and the significant processes taking place today in Europe and in the international field more generally.

The great upheavals caused by the recent global stock market and monetary crisis have dealt a decisive blow to neo-liberal certainties and have raised the urgent need for new approaches.

Within the framework of the EU, issues have already been raised for discussion which up until the recent past were taboo, a fact which could shape the possibilities for positive changes.

These new circumstances demonstrate the role which the forces of the Left could play; with respect to Greece, they raise urgently the question of the overall leftward shift of the axis of social and political developments and synchronisation with these international developments and ideas.

The SYNaspismos, putting forward the idea of a new social and political majority which will be expressed in a new way on the government level, offers precisely this prospect.

For this prospect to be realised, the SYN will undertake major political initiatives. Being fully aware of what is required û the reinforcement of social struggles and movements, changes in the political system, changes of viewpoints by parties in the progressive field, a change of government policy û it will work in all these directions to create the conditions required to reverse the present course and promote its alternative proposal.

• The Synaspismos proposes an immediate change in the electoral law and the institution of the simple proportional system as the first necessary and decisive step making possible an overall change of course.

Changes in the electoral law, changes in government policy, and the search for platform convergences to ensure substantial preparation for a progressive alternative, constitute a single, integrated whole.

But without changes to the electoral law and without the clear and declared intention to change policy and to pass to a system of government different from the present one, any dialogue is meaningless and would be perceived only as support for the policy implemented by the government. Under these conditions, the Synaspismos would not enter into such processes.

• The rejection of government policy and the simultaneous planning of a progressive alternative would be easier if all the left-progressive parties in opposition today (CPG, DIKKI, the ecological and Left forces, and citizensÆ movements) coordinated their activity in this direction.

To this end, and despite the existing problems, the most significant being the policy followed by the leadership of the CPG, the Synaspismos will take initiatives with a view to creating a new climate to allow room for common action and collaborations.

• Of course the overall political prospects of the country and the search for a progressive alternative cannot and must not remain solely within the confines of the political parties.

The Synaspismos will take initiatives to activate social forces, trade union organisations, groups and individuals, to create a new current that will revitalise political and social participation and create the conditions necessary to make use of all the creative possibilities of progressive Greece.

The PASOK government once more belied peopleÆs hopes and is now leading them to inertia, passivity and distancing from politics. But abandonment and opening the road to the conservative forces at all levels is not the solution. The solution is the total reorganisation and reconfiguration of the political scene and the creation of a new progressive dynamic.

The Synaspismos, on the basis of its political proposals, will work with all its forces to upset the present balance of power, the present policies and the present inertia in order to create this new dynamic.

A critical factor in promoting, supporting and implementing our alternative proposal is to strengthen and upgrade the role of the Synaspismos from all points of view.

The deepening and radicalisation of the SYNÆs programme constitutes a decisive priority in this direction.

4. The prefectural and municipal elections brought to the fore a series of problems in the operation of the party which must be dealt with in order to ensure a more collective, organisationally efficient and politically effective presence and activity. These include problems of putting together large organisations, adequacy in the programme, in the public representation of the party, and problems in the publicly effective operation of the leading bodies.

With respect to all of these, the Central Committee and the party as a whole must look for solutions immediately in order to take advantage of the positive results and experiences of the municipal and prefectural elections so that there is a comprehensive plan for the course leading to the European elections, aiming at the strongest possible presence of our party in them.

Within this framework in particular, the party must be concerned with the personal choices and conduct of individual comrades who went against the collective decisions made by our organisations.

The Central Committee deplores these phenomena and believes that along the way to its Congress, the SYN should examine aspects of its statutes in order to clarify issues of intra-party democracy, internal cohesion and ensuring united and effective action.