The Central Political Committee of SYNASPISMOS met on 30-31 October and 1 November 1998 to assess the results of the recent local elections in Greece (11 and 18 October 1998) and define the new political tasks of the party in view of the Euro-elections of June 1999 and the national elections due to take place in the year 2000.

The main conclusions can be summarised as follows:

• The results in aggregate were positive for SYNASPISMOS, which is third among the Greek parties in terms of elected representatives in Prefectures and Municipalities.

• SYNASPISMOS more than doubled the party members/supporters who were elected mayors (33 in number). The presence of party members/supporters in Municipal Councils has multiplied.

• SYNASPISMOS elected 1 Prefect who is a party member (P.Skotiniotis in Magnesia) and one closely associated with it (G.Katsanevakis in Hania). Also 2 independent personalities who collaborated with it. As for the number of party people in Prefecture Councils, it increased from 43 to 55. In seven cases Prefects belonging to PASOK were jointly elected by PASOK and SYNASPISMOS.

• The results as a whole were a defeat for PASOK, the first electoral defeat that the government party suffered under the leadership of C.Simitis. For the first time since 1974 PASOK suffered such a heavy defeat in local elections. On the other hand, the results were a success for the "New Democracy" party, which became for the first time the first party in local government. Gains were made also by the other parties of the opposition, the C.P. and the Democratic Social Movement.

• In terms of alliances SYNASPISMOS followed a multiple approach according to the decisions of its local organisations. So there were many municipal or prefectual lists mainly supported by SYNASPISMOS, jointly supported by PASOK and SYNASPISMOS or by SYNASPISMOS and DIKKI or by SYNASPISMOS and the Ecologists, e.g. in Attica a leading ecologist, former MP, Tassia Andreadaki was elected in Prefectrural Council. In very few cases SYNASPISMOS supported lists together with the CP due to the refusal of the latter to cooperate with our party. There were also exceptional cases where independent candidates were supported by SYN and New Democracy. In all the above cases there were successes and failures. For example, the list for the Municipality of Athens led by Maria Damanaki (Synaspismos MP), which was jointly supported by PASOK and SYNASPISMOS, suffered a serious defeat (it came second with only 16% of the vote, while the ND-supported list of D. Avramopoulos won the election from the first round with 57%) On the other hand, the candidacy of Spyros Vougias in Thessaloniki, supported solely by SYNASPISMOS, got 15% (three times the party vote in the 1996 Parliamentary elections).

The International Department of SYNASPISMOS