Evangelos Venizelos

Top PASOK deputy Evangelos Venizelos, a veteran ex-minister and the party’s leader up until last week, on Saturday told Parliament that the government’s surprise proposal for a referendum needs the approval of three-fifths of the legislature’s 300 deputies.

Answering a journalist’s question on the developments in the negotiations, former PASOK leader and veteran minister Evangelos Venizelos said:

The relief we feel, because the country avoids the destruction, which its government threatened it with – five years after 2010 – cannot hide the fact that we have reached this point in the worst possible way.

Former minister Fofi Gennimata was elected as socialist PASOK?s new leader on Sunday. Gennimata was one of three candidates in the election which saw some 50,000 party members casting their ballots across Greece.

Former minister Fofi Gennimata was elected as the new president of the socialist PASOK party, a once dominant political force in the country that held power for more than two decades after the restoration of democracy in 1974.

Up to 70,000 PASOK supporters are expect to vote Sunday in the party?s leadership race, which is being contested by three candidates.

Veteran politician and past minister Evangelos Venizelos bid “adieu” to the post of president of socialist PASOK over the weekend, opening the way for a party leader election. However, the sharp-tongued Venizelos said he wasn’t leaving politics.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos on Saturday announced his departure from the Socialist party but not from politics, setting the ball in motion for the election this Sunday of a new party chief.

Political party leaders took turns at Parliament’s podium on Friday for an off-the-agenda session on the “Greek issue”, with centrist Potami leader Stavros Theodorakis addressing the legislature after PM Alexis Tsipras and main opposition leader Antonis Samaras.

Theodorakis called for the government to deal with its “internal opposition” and seek a national consensus.

PASOK launched its 10th congress on Friday, which will pave the way for current leader Evangelos Venizelos to step down and a leadership vote to take place next Sunday.

PASOK will on Friday launch a three-day conference to discuss its next steps ahead of elections for a new leader to replace Evangelos Venizelos on June 14.

Candidates for the job are Fofi Gennimata, Andreas Loverdos and Odysseas Konstantinopoulos. Venizelos has said he will not run for a fresh term.