The Democratic Social Movement (DIKKI, Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

: ΔΗΚΚΙ, Δημοκρατικό Κοινωνικό Κίνημα, Dimokratiko Koinoniko Kinima) is a Greek democratic socialist political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

. The party was founded in 1995 by Dimitris Tsovolas

Dimitris Tsovolas

Dimitris Tsovolas is a politician of Greece.He was born at Melissourgoi, a village outside Arta, Epirus, Greece in 1942. He studied the Law at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki. He worked as a lawyer in Arta from 1970 to 1977.He later began his career in politics as a member of PASOK...

 and several ex-members of PASOK

Panhellenic Socialist Movement

The Panhellenic Socialist Movement , known mostly by its acronym PASOK , is one of the two major political parties in Greece. Founded on 3 September 1974 by Andreas Papandreou, in 1981 PASOK became Greece's first social democratic party to win a majority in parliament.The party is a socialist party...

, the then ruling social-democratic

Social democracy

Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...

 party.

In the 1996 legislative election

Greek legislative election, 1996

Legislative elections were held in the Hellenic Republic on 22 September 1996. At stake were 300 seats in the Greek Parliament.The ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement of Costas Simitis, was elected, defeating the liberal-conservative New Democracy party of Miltiadis Evert.-Results: rowspan=2...

, DIKKI received 4.43% of the vote and 9 seats in the Hellenic Parliament

Hellenic Parliament

The Hellenic Parliament , also the Parliament of the Hellenes, is the Parliament of Greece, located in the Parliament House , overlooking Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece....

. In the 1999 election to the European Parliament

European Parliament election, 1999 (Greece)

The European Parliament election of 1999 in Greece for the election of the delegation from Greece to the European Parliament took place on June 13. The election system used in Greece was a party-list proportional representation with a 3% threshold for any party...

, the party received 6.85% of the vote and 2 seats in the European Parliament, and was a full member of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left group.

After these initial successes, however, DIKKI failed to elect members to the Hellenic Parliament on two consecutive elections; it received 2.69% of the vote in the 2000 legislative election and 1.8% of the vote in the 2004 legislative election

Greek legislative election, 2004

Legislative elections were held in Greece on March 7, 2004. At stake were 300 seats in the Greek Parliament, the Vouli . The New Democracy Party of Kostas Karamanlis won a decisive victory in the elections, ending eleven years of rule by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement .PASOK was led into the...

.

After the 2004 election, Tsovolas unilaterally decided to dissolve DIKKI and give the party possessions away to the Greek state. That decision led to a conflict between the party leader and the National Committee, who voted against the dissolvement; there are accusations that Tsovolas went through these actions, because he was planning to be readmitted in PASOK in the near future. The National Committee went to law and the court ruled that the party is legally administered by the national executive bodies, thus it cannot cease to exist unless the National Congress or the National Committee takes such decision. The party possessions were returned and Tsovolas was expelled.

In the local elections of 2006

Greek local elections, 2006

The 2006 Greek local elections elected representatives to Greece's 3 super-prefectures, 54 prefectures, provinces, and approximately 1,033 communities and municipalities.The elections took place on Sunday, 15 October 2006 from 7am to 7pm....

 DIKKI supported many tickets led by KKE, and numerous party members (for the size of the party) were elected in local councils. Moreover, DIKKI participated in PAME

All Workers Militant Front

The All-Workers Militant Front is a coordination centre within the Greek trade union movement, founded on the initiative of Communist Party of Greece trade-unionists in April 1999. Amongst it membership are also cadres of Communist Renewal. PAME is critical of the official positions and leadership...

, a trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

ist coordination centre closely related with KKE. Although it was expected that co-operation between the two parties would become permanent, on August 22, 2007 DIKKI announced that it was participating in the Coalition of the Radical Left

Coalition of the Radical Left

The Coalition of the Radical Left , commonly known by its Greek abbreviation ΣΥΡΙΖΑ , is a coalition of left political parties in Greece...

 SYRIZA, which received 5.04% of the vote in the legislative election held on September 16, 2007.

External links

• DIKKI website
• Greek election results, via the Greek Ministry of Internal Affairs