The River, the party established by journalist Stavros Theodorakis earlier this year prior to the European elections, held a conference over the weekend, where the party’s main political positions on 21 subjects were presented.
About 60 people spoke during the conference, with party leader Theodorakis delivering a two-hour speech on Sunday evening. In his speech Mr. Theodorakis stressed that the River is a centrist party and argued that the goal is to participate in a coalition government.
Mr. Theodorakis was in favor of carrying out radical changes to the Constitution and the current Parliament electing a President, although he argued against “resorting to mediocrities and political pensioners, just to avoid elections”. The River president also stressed the need for changes in public administration, reducing the number of ministries and tackling bureaucracy.
Later in his speech Mr. Theodorakis criticized main opposition party SYRIZA for its policies while accusing PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos of clinging on to the vice presidency and New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras of swaying between Europe and his party.
Amongst the speakers at the conference was DIMAR MP Grigoris Psarianos who announced that in the next elections he would not only vote for The River, but also noted the possibility of being a candidate with the party. Former SYRIZA MP Petros Tatsopoulos also spoke about how the 50-seat bonus given to the first party distorts the outcome of elections.
