03/11/2026 Political Affairs and Democracy | New Democratic Pact
George Papandreou (Greece, SOC), PACE’s General Rapporteur on Democracy and a former Prime Minister of Greece, took part in the morning plenary session on the second day of the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg, urging that power be devolved to lower levels, including via new technologies, and warning against the huge concentrations of wealth that are undermining democratic processes.
The current street protests in Europe and around the world should be seen as a form of “oxygen for democracy”, he pointed out, noting that in ancient times ‘politics’ had not originally been seen as a bad word but was regarded as a way for the people to make decisions for themselves: “We, the people, can imagine a better world and we can collectively decide it. How can we do that in a peaceful way? How can we do that so that nobody captures power for good? Well, we innovate! We create something called democracy, where people are respected, where there is justice, and where power is limited and controlled.”
Turning to modern times, he called for power to be devolved – to cities, to citizens’ assemblies or directly to citizens themselves using new AI tools and algorithms which would allow the creation, for example, of “a fourth branch of government for constant deliberation”. Meanwhile, at global level, he warned against the huge concentrations of wealth that had allowed small elites to buy political power: “It is not democracy itself that is to blame. It is that we have allowed concentrations of power in ways that are corrupting and undermining our system.”
The morning session aimed to promote inclusive democratic decision-making and resilience while underlining the key strengths of the Council of Europe in preparing for the future. Key speakers included the former Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova Natalia Gavrilița and the President of the European Court of Human Rights Mattias Guyomar.
