Drassi Δράση | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Theodoros Skylakakis |
| General Secretary | Melina Daskalakis |
| Spokesperson | Panagiotis Michalopoulos |
| Founder | Stefanos Manos |
| Founded | 2009 (2009) |
| Dissolved | 2019 (2019) |
| Preceded by | The Liberals |
| Merged into | New Democracy |
| Headquarters | 98Α,Vasilissis Sofias Avenue, 11528,Athens |
| Ideology | Liberalism[1] Postnationalism Decentralization Economic liberalism Meritocracy Neoliberalism |
| Political position | Centre tocentre-right |
| European affiliation | Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe |
| European Parliament group | No MEPs |
| Slogan | Citizens, not clients |
| Parliament | 0 / 300 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 22 |
| Regions[2] | 39 / 725 |
| Website | |
| www | |
Drassi (Greek:Δράση, "Action") was aliberal[3][4]political party in Greece. The party was founded in 2009 byStefanos Manos and was led by formerNew Democracy memberTheodoros Skylakakis.The party had no representation in theHellenic Parliament orEuropean Parliament. Drassi was a member of theAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) party.[5]
Stefanos Manos leftNew Democracy (ND) in 1999 to foundThe Liberals, before later running on ND andPanhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) electoral lists in2000 and2004 respectively. Unlike The Liberals, Drassi was not founded as an expressly liberal party, but claims to espouse "common sense" as an ideological basis.[6]
In its first contested election, the2009 European elections, Drassi finished ninth with 0.8% of the vote. It subsequently did not participate in thegeneral election in October 2009.
In theMay 2012 legislative election, Drassi ran inelectoral alliance with theLiberal Alliance. It won 1.8% of the vote finishing twelfth overall, directly behind theDemocratic Alliance andRecreate Greece, which both had similar liberal ideologies to Drassi. Ahead of new elections inJune 2012 legislative election, Drassi and the Liberal Alliance formed an electoral pact with Recreate Greece,[7] while the Democratic Alliance, which they had also approached,[1] refused to join them and ran on theNew Democracy list instead.[8]
In the2014 European elections, Drassi ran inelectoral alliance with Recreate Greece.[9]
On 5 January 2015, Drassi's leader Skylakakis and the leader ofThe River party,Stavros Theodorakis, gave a press conference announcing a jointelectoral list for theJanuary 2015 legislative election.[10][11]
On 3 September 2015, Drassi decided to again support The River in the upcoming snapSeptember 2015 legislative election.[12][13]
In January 2017, Drassi decided to migrate withND.[14]
In February 2019, Drassi was suspended.[15]
Drassi was in favor of a small and flexible government through the decrease of the portion of Greek government expenses the party considers unnecessary.[16] Moreover, the party supported privatizations of public assets, using the proceeds for the repayment of undervalued Greek debt in secondary capital markets.[16]
Drassi had been described by the media as a "pro-business-party" supporting free-market reforms.[17][18]
| Results | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | European Parliament | 38,895 | 0.76% | 0 | ||||
| May 2012 | Hellenic Parliament | 75.428 | 1.80%* | 0 | ||||
| June 2012 | Hellenic Parliament | 98,050 | 1.59%** | 0 | ||||
| 2014 | European Parliament | 51,749 | 0.91%*** | 0 | ||||
* In alliance withLiberal Alliance
** In alliance withRecreate Greece and Liberal Alliance
*** In alliance with Recreate Greece
(in Greek)