ATHENS – It’s not back, but the old PASOK party veterans who dominate a new party after a merger with the former Movement for Change have now brought back the Green Sun logo the Socialists had used since being founded in 1974 by the late former premier Andreas Papandreou.

Now under the leadership of Member of the European Parliament Nikos Androulakis – who took over after the death of former chief Fofi Gennimata – the new PASOK-KINAL has doubled its support although it remains marginal.

In 2001 Androulakis became a member of the Central Council of PASOK Youth and in 2008 he was appointed member of the National Council of PASOK and has been its political secretary.

The return of the original logo was approved by 95% of party members in recent internal elections after using the Movement for Change name and logo, essentially resurrecting what remains of PASOK.

The Socialists faded into oblivion under former leader Evangelos Venizelos, who stepped away from the party’s alleged principles when he joined a former New Democracy government as a junior partner and agreed with austerity measures.

The decline had begun under previous premier and then-party leader George Papandreou – Andreas’ son – who won 44 percent of the vote in winning the 2009 election win.

Papandreou, who assured voters that, “The money is there,” had to ask for an international bailout that turned into three rescue packages of 326 billion euros ($348.81 billion) by successive governments, triggering harsh austerity.