This is a piece of news that made me very happy and proud.
Having known G. Papandreou as a politician and as a person for almost 30 years, I consider this as an international recognition of his political agenda. George is not a conventional Greek politician and certain Greek political “experts” doubt his ability as a leader. I hope that his election in January as the President of the Socialist International will make a lot of them reconsider their views.
Below is an excerpt of the announcement by the SI
(full statement: http://www.socialistinternational.org/main.html)
The
Socialist International, the worldwide organisation of social democratic,
socialist and labour parties, will elect its President at the upcoming meeting
of its Council to be held in
The election of the President will complete a process that began last June when the Presidium of the Socialist International appointed a Commission with the responsibility to receive and consider candidatures for the office. The Commission, which included leaders of SI member parties from each region of the world and was chaired by SI Vice-President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, reported back with the name of George Papandreou, the leader of the SI member party in Greece, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, PASOK, as candidate for President of Socialist International, which will be voted upon by all the member parties of the organisation in Athens.