«Mr. Androulakis has shown in every possible way that he does not want my political presence in PASOK, of which he is the leader. He wishes to have a free field for his decisions and, above all, for his post-election political choices. I therefore tender my resignation.’, says Charis Castanides in a letter «firing» against the president of PASOK.
The Castanides letter
In my political career I have only committed myself in the name of ideas and principles for which I have fought without compromise. Often at human and political cost.
In the 2023 elections, Mr Androulakis took the seat of Thessaloniki, excluding the parliamentary representation of its citizens from the first person they elected. Afterwards, his associates, appointed in the Organizational Sector, took it upon themselves to threaten organizations that dared to invite me as a speaker. And to leave no doubt about his intentions, at the recent congress he invented an amendment to the PASOK constitution to exclude a single person from the Movement's ballot papers. The maximum term limit that he established for MPs in the party statutes, with retroactive effect, does not concern anyone else, as some people falsely spread the word, but only me.
At the Delphi forum, he said that he proposed a term limit, because long-serving MPs are guilty of patronage and bribery. He forgot, of course, to say that he exempted from the regulation the former presidents of PASOK, who can continue to be MPs even though they have completed 20 years in office. It seems that the former presidents, like himself when he is in the future a «former president», are sanctified by their title and remain «untainted» by buffoonery and clientelism.
Mr Androulakis' claim is offensive, untruthful and self-serving.
Hesitant, because Mr.Androulakis wants to hurriedly skip the painful truth, that most of the political persons under investigation for current scandalous cases have short parliamentary term, and in the case of OPEKEPE, by a devilish coincidence, people closely connected to him are being investigated, one of them is in custody.
Untruthful and insulting for personalities of our modern political history, with a long presence in politics and in Parliament, personalities who shone with their moral example, honoured democracy, served the civil society and not the clients.
Kostis Stephanopoulos, Anastasios Peponis, Ioannis Aleyras or Yannis Charalampopoulos would have been put to the test by the artful Androulakis, if he had been their co-conspirator.
As far as I am concerned, it is enough for me that citizens recognise in me the man who drafted the founding law for the Ombudsman, who established the Independent Authority for the fight against money laundering, who did not hesitate to resign as a minister, defending transparency in public procurement and public works when the government reneged on its commitments. It is enough for me that citizens know that key provisions of anti-corruption and anti-corruption laws bear my signature as Minister of Justice.
Honesty, dignity, commitment to the public interest and not to electoral patronage have to do with the conscience, character and ethics of individuals and not with the length of their terms of office.
Conclusion. When indecency is repeated, decency must respond.
Mr Androulakis has shown in every possible way that he does not want my political presence in the PASOK of which he is the leader. He wishes to have a free field for his decisions and, above all, for his post-election political choices. I therefore tender my resignation.
I am not giving up the PASOK of the ideas of democratic socialism. I am resigning from the party of Mr Androulakis.
I bid him farewell in the words of Chateaubriand: «The more insignificant are those who hold power, the more they tend towards pettiness.».
I hold in my heart the common struggles we have fought with many friends and comrades, struggles that will continue.
4.5.2026
Harry Castanides
