Greece: Battered Greek Socialist party head to polls under new name
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Greece's once-dominant Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement, or Pasok, will participate in May's European Parliament elections as part of a new center-left alliance and not independently, after popular support for the party collapsed during the country's painful economic bailout.
Pasok officials said Monday that its candidates would seek election in the May 22-25 polls under a newly formed Progressive Democrats' Party, created by center-left politicians and academics.
Pasok dominated Greek politics for decades, but its popularity has been hammered as voters blamed the party for the country's severe financial crisis and grew angry at austerity measures imposed under the country's bailout.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Support for the party fell below 5 percent in a December tracking poll, tumbling from nearly 44 percent in a landslide general election victory in 2009.