Venizelos: I will take up my position as leader and resign as minister

Using the phrase "if and when I take on my duties as leader of the biggest party of this parliament, I will devote myself to these tasks", Finance minister Evangelos Venizelos determined the time of his resignation from the government.

In an interview with Alpha television station, Venizelos described his intentions for his future in the government and took stock of his work: "Once the circle of the PASOK party matters closes, it is my duty to steer the party to elections in the best possible circumstances. I think that my presence in the Finance ministry, mainly due to luck and the desire of the Greek people, implied sacrifices, and this circle closes with a changing in the terms of the debt, with the relief of the younger generations from a huge burden."

He also said that when he assumed the finmin post, his entourage was against such a prospect. "There was no man near me, save scarce exceptions, which did not wish to discourage me."

Venizelos criticized the previous government's handling of the economic crisis. "It was the start of a big negotiation to actually do things that should have been done from the beginning, in the first memorandum. And if you see the differences between the first and the second program, you might realize what our partners should have thought and what should have been done from the beginning of March, April and May of 2010." However, he added that the then government was essentially "surveilling an unknown area."

He noted that "when we entered the now infamous memorandum, the first program, the society, the government, the political system, all were ambivalent. We did not implement the structural changes with speed and determination. Privatisations, for example, did not come at the pace they were supposed to and neither did the deregulation of professions, the deregulation of the markets, the removal of privileges, the competition in the market that is decreasing the prices. This led to much higher pressure for horizontal cuts in wages and pensions."

He also defended the political system by saying that "politicians are not all the same," regarding the provocative actions by some of his colleagues. "There are politicians who are using the 'test tube'. There are politicians who have followed the course of a 'gardener'. And there are people who have followed a course in society, in their science, in their work."

Referring to the PASOK internal party elections, he explained that there should be more than one thousand polls and that he expects the electors to come together with a boosted morale. The slogan of his campaign is "We begin."