Leader Stavros Theodorakis European affiliation None | Political position Centre to Centre-left | |
 | ||
Founded 26 February 2014 (2014-02-26) Ideology Centrism
Social liberalism
Social democracy
Pro-Europeanism European Parliament group Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats | ||
The River (Greek: Το Ποτάμι, To Potami, [to poˈtami]) is a centrist and social-liberal political party in Greece. The party was founded in February 2014 by Stavros Theodorakis. The party has two MEPs in the European Parliament and six seats in the Hellenic Parliament (down from the 11 elected in the last election).
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Party foundation
The party was launched on 11 March 2014 in Athens by TV presenter Stavros Theodorakis.
2014 European Parliament election
In April 2014 representatives of The River met the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz and with representatives of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and The Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) parliamentary groups.
In the 2014 European Parliament election held on 25 May 2014, the party received 6.6% of the national vote and the mandate to elect two MEPs, Giorgos Grammatikakis and Miltos Kyrkos.
On 27 May 2014 the two incoming MEPs announced their decision to sit with the S&D group in the European Parliament, whose intake included two MEPs from the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), citing the group’s commitment to “tackling the recession and unemployment in Greece and the South in general is among its political priorities”, while ruling out joining the Party of European Socialists.
2015 legislative elections
On 24 December 2014, the newly founded party Reformers for Democracy and Development of former Democratic Left (DIMAR) MP Spyros Lykoudis announced an alliance with The River.
On 5 January 2015, the Liberal Alliance party suspended talks about a joint electoral list with The River after the participation of Liberal Alliance's president Gregory Vallianatos had reportedly been ruled out by The River officials. Later, The River's leader Theodorakis and Theodoros Skylakakis, the leader of the liberal party Drasi, gave a joint press conference announcing a joint electoral list for the forthcoming legislative election.
In the January 2015 legislative election on 25 January 2015 The River received 6.1% of the electoral vote, finishing fourth place with a mandate for 17 seats in the Hellenic Parliament. In the aftermath of the election party leader Theodorakis stressed that Greece needed to avoid another snap election, and while ready to talk with SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras about forming a coalition government, he said they wouldn't support any coalition that includes anti-European forces. The River became part of the parliamentary opposition to the governing first Tsipras cabinet.
In the second election of the year, the September 2015 legislative election on 20 September 2015, the party received a reduced vote count of 4.1%, receiving 11 seats, remaining in opposition.
Resignations
On 19 April 2016, Yiannis Theoharis resigned from To Potami's parliamentary group.
On 18 October 2016, Iasonas Fotilas was expelled from the party.
On 21 November 2016, Katerina Markou declared herself an independent.
On 13 January 2017, Rodopi MP Ilhan Ahmet became the fourth MP elected in the September 2015 general election to resign from the party. He later announced he was joining the Democratic Alignment parliamentary group.
On 7 February, Larissa MP Konstantinos Bargiotas resigned from the party, indicating that he would join the Democratic Alignment parliamentary group.
Ideology
Following its launch, The River was initially described by the media as pro-European and centrist, inspired by social democracy and liberalism and heavily reliant on Theodorakis' personal popularity to attract voters. The general description of the party's political position ranged from centrist to centre-left.