Drassi (, "Action") was a liberal political party in Greece. The party was founded in 2009 by

Stefanos Manos Stefanos Manos ( el, Στέφανος Μάνος; born 1939) is a Greek politician, former member of the Hellenic Parliament, and a former government minister. Career His political career started in the New Democracy party, for which he became a ...

and was led by former New Democracy member Theodoros Skylakakis. The party had no representation in the

Hellenic Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule (ancient Greece), Boule of the Greeks, Hellenes, label=none), also kno ...

or European Parliament. Drassi was a member of the

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE; french: Alliance des Démocrates et des Libéraux pour l'Europe, ADLE) is a transnational alliance between two European political parties, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Euro ...

(ALDE) party.

History

left New Democracy (ND) in 1999 to found The Liberals, before later running on ND and Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) electoral lists in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

respectively. Unlike The Liberals, Drassi was not founded as an expressly liberal party, but claims to espouse " common sense" as an ideological basis. In its first contested election, the 2009 European elections, Drassi finished ninth with 0.8% of the vote. It subsequently did not participate in the general election in October 2009. In the May 2012 legislative election, Drassi ran in electoral alliance with the Liberal Alliance. It won 1.8% of the vote finishing twelfth overall, directly behind the Democratic Alliance and Recreate Greece, which both had similar liberal ideologies to Drassi. Ahead of new elections in June 2012 legislative election, Drassi and the Liberal Alliance formed an electoral pact with Recreate Greece, while the Democratic Alliance, which they had also approached, refused to join them and ran on the New Democracy list instead. In the 2014 European elections, Drassi ran in electoral alliance with Recreate Greece. On 5 January 2015, Drassi's leader Skylakakis and the leader of The River party,

Stavros Theodorakis Stavros Theodorakis ( ; born 1963) is a Greek journalist and politician, who founded and led the social liberal party ''To Potami'' (''The River''). In the January 2015 election he was elected to the Hellenic parliament, with his party receivin ...

, gave a press conference announcing a joint

electoral list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

for the January 2015 legislative election. On 3 September 2015, Drassi decided to again support The River in the upcoming snap September 2015 legislative election. In January 2017, Drassi decided to migrate with ND. In February 2019, Drassi was suspended.

Ideology

Drassi was in favor of a small and flexible government through the decrease of the portion of Greek government expenses the party considers unnecessary. Moreover, the party supported privatizations of public assets, using the proceeds for the repayment of undervalued Greek debt in secondary capital markets. Drassi had been described by the media as a "pro-business-party" supporting free-market reforms.

Electoral results

^* In alliance with Liberal Alliance
^** In alliance with Recreate Greece and Liberal Alliance
^*** In alliance with Recreate Greece

Footnotes

External links

* {{in lang, el Defunct political parties in Greece Political parties established in 2009 Liberal parties in Greece Neoliberal parties in Greece Multicultural parties in Greece Classical liberal parties 2009 establishments in Greece Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party member parties Political parties disestablished in 2019