A Plain Guide to the Party

We have published six founding documents: a Constitution, Standing Orders, a Political Statement, a Declaration of Establishment, Founding Congress Standing Orders, and a First Year Organisational Strategy. Together they run to thousands of words.

This post explains the same thing in plain language. How the party works. Who decides what. How you participate. Why it is built the way it is.

How you join

You are 17 or older, a Greek citizen or legal resident. You apply, you pay dues (reduced for students, unemployed members and pensioners), and you are in. You get access to the online platform, assigned to your local branch, and invited to a political education session within your first three months.

From that moment, you can vote on everything, stand for any position, submit motions and attend all meetings.

Who runs the party

The Congress is the supreme body. Every member votes, online or in person. It meets at least every two years. It decides the programme, elects the leader, elects the Political Council, and can change the Constitution. If membership exceeds 500, some delegates are chosen by sortition (random selection from the membership) to keep representation honest.

The Political Council runs the party between Congresses. Between 11 and 19 members, all elected. They meet at least quarterly. They set positions on current issues, approve candidates, manage finances and oversee the Thinking Schools. Two year terms. Maximum three consecutive. Any member can be recalled by petition.

The Executive Committee handles day to day operations. The Leader, Deputy, General Secretary, Treasurer and up to three others. They report to the Political Council at every meeting.

The Party Leader chairs the Political Council and represents the party publicly. Two year terms, aligned with the council. Maximum three consecutive terms (six years), then they must step aside. They can be removed at any time by a two thirds Congress vote or by a recall petition signed by 40% of members.

Local Branches form wherever 10 members live. They elect their own officers. Monthly meetings, always hybrid so you can join online. They run public community assemblies open to all residents, not only members. Branch officers serve one year terms, maximum two consecutive, and can be recalled by a majority vote at an all member meeting.

There is also an Overseas Branch for diaspora Greeks who retain the right to vote.

The checks and balances

Every position has term limits. Leader: three terms. Council: three terms. Branch officers: two terms. Committees: two terms. Public office holders: two terms. Nobody sits in a chair forever.

Every position can be recalled. Political Council members and the Leader can be recalled by petition: 40% of members sign within 28 days, the Disciplinary Committee verifies the signatures, then all members vote by secret ballot. Simple majority removes them. Branch officers are simpler: majority vote at an all member meeting.

The Disciplinary Committee is independent. Three members elected by Congress, none of whom sit on the Political Council or Executive. They investigate breaches of the Code of Conduct. You always get the right to defend yourself. You can appeal to Congress.

The Financial Audit Committee is also independent. Three members, also elected by Congress, also not on any other body. They review all accounts and can demand any financial document at any time. No donation to the party is anonymous. All donations are published.

The Code of Conduct applies to every member. Respectful behaviour in meetings, events and on social media. Officers and elected officials have a stricter Code of Ethics: a 500 euro gift cap, mandatory conflict of interest declarations, and no second jobs while serving in senior party office or elected public office.

How policy gets made

This is where AURIO is different. Policy does not start with a politician’s idea. It starts with evidence.

The Thinking Schools are research bodies, one per policy pillar, each anchored in the thinkers and evidence that underpin our programme:

Food Sovereignty (Vandana Shiva, Wendell Berry, Miguel Altieri)
Community Energy (Elinor Ostrom)
Local Economy (E.F. Schumacher, Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Kate Raworth)
Direct Democracy (Murray Bookchin, Cornelius Castoriadis, Nicos Poulantzas)
Education as Liberation (Paulo Freire)
Border Region Justice (original to AURIO, drawing on Castoriadis and Poulantzas)
Culture as Infrastructure (Ivan Illich)
European Sovereignty (Amartya Sen, Frantz Fanon)
European Democracy (Elinor Ostrom, Murray Bookchin)
Gender Parity and Anti-Racism (Esther Duflo, Aili Mari Tripp)
Healthcare as a Commons (Julian Tudor Hart, Michael Marmot, Atul Gawande)
Social Security and Dignity (Amartya Sen, Guy Standing, Karl Polanyi)

Each Thinking School conducts research, produces evidence briefs, invites external academics and practitioners, and publishes its findings for the membership and the public. They feed directly into the policy process.

Locally: Any branch member or community assembly can propose a policy. The branch forms a working group, grounds the proposal in evidence (drawing on Thinking School research), and the branch membership votes to accept, reject or send it back.

Nationally: Members submit motions to Congress (400 words maximum). A Policy Motions Committee checks they are clear, actionable and not a rehash of something already defeated. At Congress, motions are introduced, debated and voted on by all members online. If a motion passes, a Policy Working Group develops it into a full document with Thinking School input. All members then vote to ratify it. Once ratified, it is binding on all party representatives.

Between Congresses: The Political Council can take urgent positions using Thinking School advice, but these are provisional and must be ratified at the next Congress.

The principle is simple. Evidence first. Member deliberation second. Democratic ratification third. No policy exists without all three.

How candidates are selected

Any member in good standing for at least six months can stand. You need 10 seconders from your local branch. If multiple people want the same seat, the branch runs a secret ballot using single transferable vote. The Political Council oversees for fairness but cannot overrule local choices for political reasons.

All candidate lists use the zebra system: alternating men and women from the top. No exceptions. No list that breaks this rule goes out. This is grounded in evidence from Rwanda, Senegal and research by Duflo and Tripp showing that gender parity in governance produces better outcomes.

Elected officials can be recalled by their local branch. Term limit: two consecutive terms in the same public office.

Digital infrastructure

AURIO is online first. Congress votes are open to all members online, regardless of whether you attend in person. Branch meetings are hybrid. Internal elections use online voting. There is a year round online platform for policy discussion, motions and amendments. The most supported proposals on the platform are prioritised for formal submission to the next Congress.

This matters because many of our members will be in the diaspora or in areas far from a meeting hall. If you can vote, you can participate. Geography is not a barrier.

The first year plan

We have published a detailed First Year Organisational Strategy. The short version:

Months 1 to 3: Political Council takes office. Digital platform launches. Evros branch forms. Finance and legal compliance established.

Months 4 to 6: First Thinking Schools launch (Democracy, Economy, Energy, Culture). Overseas Branch established. Thessaloniki branch. Political education programme starts. First evidence briefs published.

Months 7 to 9: Next wave of Thinking Schools launch (Education, Food, European Sovereignty, Gender Parity). Athens branch. Municipal election working group formed for the 2028 Alexandroupolis campaign.

Months 10 to 12: Final Thinking Schools launch (Border Region, European Democracy, Healthcare, Social Security). All twelve operational. National election manifesto drafting begins. Election lawyer verifies municipal requirements.

Months 13 to 24: Candidate selection opens. Municipal programme for Alexandroupolis prepared. First Ordinary Congress convened. All interim provisions expire. Full democratic governance begins.

The three election horizon

2027: National parliamentary elections. Run in Evros and at least three other constituencies. Establish AURIO as a credible national presence.

2028: Municipal elections in October. Contest the Alexandroupoli mayor’s race. Win local power. Implement the pillars from the mayor’s office: participatory budgeting, community energy, cultural programming. All legal from day one.

2029: European Parliament elections. Take the movement to Brussels.

Why it is built this way

Every design choice in the Constitution traces back to one of our thinkers.

The recall mechanisms and short terms come from Bookchin: the problem is not bad representatives, it is representation itself. So we make every representative directly accountable and replaceable.

The Thinking Schools come from all of them: Shiva, Berry, Altieri, Ostrom, Schumacher, Gordon Nembhard, Raworth, Bookchin, Castoriadis, Poulantzas, Freire, Illich, Sen, Fanon, Duflo, Tripp, Tudor Hart, Marmot, Gawande, Standing, Polanyi and the rest. Policy must begin with evidence, not with a politician’s intuition. The thinkers are the foundation. The schools are how we keep them alive in practice.

The community assemblies come from Bookchin and Freire: people who are affected by decisions must make those decisions. The branch is not a campaign office. It is a democratic assembly embedded in its community.

The gender parity comes from Duflo and Tripp: evidence proves that who governs determines what gets built. The zebra system is not a gesture. It is a structural commitment grounded in decades of research.

The online infrastructure comes from Ostrom: governing the commons requires that all stakeholders can participate. Digital tools are democratic infrastructure, not a convenience.

This is not ideology. It is evidence. Decades of it, from every continent, across every domain. AURIO exists to bring this evidence into Greek political life.

Read the full documents

If you want the detail, all six founding documents are published on our website:

Transparency is not optional. It is the foundation.