PASOK seals vote pact with DIMAR

PASOK and Democratic Left (DIMAR) announced their cooperation for the elections over the weekend. The new political grouping named Democratic Coalition will not be an amalgamation of the two parties but rather a political alliance to increase support for the ailing parties in the coming elections.

The announcement came just a couple of days after PASOK said that it had been unable to reach an identical agreement with ex-Prime Minister George Papandreou’s Movement of Democratic Socialists (KIDISO). Speaking on Saturday, Papandreou blamed PASOK for the breakdown.

Opinion polls over the last few days suggest PASOK will pass the 3 percent threshold to enter Parliament. PASOK and DIMAR had cooperated as part of the coalition government between June 2012 and June 2013, when DIMAR walked out because of then prime minister Antonis Samaras’s decision to shut down public broadcaster ERT.