Papandreou: ND bears responsibility for populism in 2009

New Democracy bears a "huge responsibility" for its populism in undermining his government after Greece's financial woes became known and for prolonging the country's bailout regime, former prime minister George Papandreou said on Friday.

Papandreou, who was prime minister from 2009 to 2011, told the "50 Years of the Metapolitefsi" conference that a "spirit of unity" was lacking when he took office and the true extent of the country's indebtedness emerged.

"I had said that if we didn't all move together, the memoranda would be very long, and that if we moved in the right way we could have gotten a [debt] haircut," he said.

He added that in 2011 he had called New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras twice to offer to step down as prime minister, even though he had won the election with a 44% landslide. But his plans were quickly leaked to the press.

"We were...