Panhellenic Socialist Movement leadership election

Seven PASOK MPs on Thursday publicly backed Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos and his plans for the party to play a leading role in a broader center-left alliance after ex-leader George Papandreou declared his opposition to the plan and called for an emergency congress followed by a confidence vote.

Former Prime Minister Costas Simitis on Friday backed PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos’s proposal to create a new center-left party with the Socialists at its heart.

In a speech at an event on Wednesday night in Athens marking the 40th anniversary of the founding of PASOK, both the party’s leader Evangelos Venizelos and former Socialist Prime Minister Costas Simitis appealed to party patriotism to revive PASOK’s flagging fortunes and took turns at making indirect digs at George Papandreou, who was not at the event.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos has extended an invitation to former party chiefs Costas Simitis and George Papandreou to take part in an event to mark the party’s 40th anniversary on September 3.

According to sources, Venizelos e-mailed both ex-prime ministers to inform them that they would be welcome at the event, to be held at the Zappeio Hall.

PASOK chief Evangelos Venizelos hit back on Thursday at critics within his party who have suggested that there should be a leadership challenge, labeling them “fifth columnists.”

PASOK MP Costas Skandalidis questioned Monday party leader Evangelos Venizelos’s strategy for the Socialists and called on him to begin contacts with SYRIZA.

“Nobody has the legitimacy to decide the fate of a historic party on his own,” said Skandalidis in an op-ed in Ta New newspaper.

By Costas Iordanidis

PASOK chief Evangelos Venizelos will be meeting with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at the Maximos Mansion on Thursday with the air of a winner from last Sunday’s elections as he hopes to shape the cabinet that will emerge from the expected reshuffle and the coalition government’s new policy line.

Coming together as a nation is key for Greece to put the current crisis behind it, Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos said in a meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias on Wednesday.

"We want to see growth and employment in a citizen-friendly Europe, nobody can bear austerity and unemployment," said Venizelos at the meeting held following Sunday's elections.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos said on Thursday that the results of the European Parliament elections on Sunday would have to be balanced against the outcome of the local polls that take place on the same day.

The European Union was slow in its efforts to aid Greece in the wake of the country’s debt crisis, according to former Prime Minister George Papandreou.