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Former Prime Minister George Papandreou has announced that he will establish a new party if the Greek Parliament fails to appoint a new president. In an open letter disseminated today, he emphasizes that the present composition of parliament must elect a president and must announce elections immediately afterwards in order to form a new cabinet with "progressive orientation."

The news is not particularly surprising, in view of the fact that Papandreou had previously paved the way for it. He did not take part in the metamorphosis of PASOK into the formation "Elia" and did not support its leader Evangelos Venizelos in the European elections. He had recently expressed his disagreement with the transformation of PASOK into a democratic party, stating that he would not participate in its ballot papers.

Having spent two years participating in conferences and lectures, in the summer of 2013 George Papandreou decided to stop travelling and stay in Greece. He settled in the party foundation that bears the name of his father Andreas Papandreou and held daily conversations with his assistants, deputies and members of PASOK in different regions of the country.

According to the online edition iefimerida.gr, the final decision on the establishment of the new party had been made at a secret meeting at the foundation, which involved his close associates. Although some of them expressed doubts, Papandreou said he was ready for the big move.

"The decision has been made. The question is when to announce it - before 29 December or later," some of the participants in the meeting said before the media. The staff of Papandreou already involves former parliament speaker Filippos Petsalnikos and former leading figures in PASOK.

It is expected that the decision of the former Prime Minister will cause a chain reaction not only in PASOK. On the one hand, the current party members who belong to his associates must decide whether they will follow him in his new attempt to return to big politics. Lawmakers who have left, or distanced themselves from, PASOK and are closer to the positions of SYRIZA as well as former ministers in his government, who currently do not belong to any party, must make the same decision as well.

On the other hand, Papandreou has the support of PASOK members such as Michalis Karhimakis and 75 other party representatives from all over Greece, the left platform of George Panagiotakopoulos and regional committees of PASOK, who have refused to participate in the planned congress of the Democratic Party.

"PASOK is and will be a guarantor of stability in Greece and will oppose the attempts to provoke political confusion and uncertainty, both before and after the presidential elections. Therefore, we will all do our duty. It is enough to remember this and to judge things right," was the laconic comment by PASOK.

According to party sources, it was personally dictated by Evangelos Venizelos and it actually denies the probability of creating a special purpose government, mentioning the provocation of confusion and uncertainty precisely for that reason. They explained that whenever the national elections take place, they will participate in a formation under the name PASOK- Democratic Party, as the party authorities have recently decided.

Circles close to Venizelos indicate, "It seems that with this statement George Papandreou is making himself available to the events, to reduce the gap that is dividing the government and the opposition. We are seeing no response. We know each other and the memories are very fresh."

At the same time, the newspaper "Pontiki" has published a poll according to which 6% of voters are ready to support the party of George Papandreou if he establishes it. His potential voters include one out of four of the present PASOK supporters. Furthermore, two out of every ten of them share the opinion of the former Prime Minister, namely that it is necessary to hold a party congress to elect a new leader of PASOK.

70% of PASOK supporters, however, say they will not vote for a new party under the leadership of George Papandreou, and 42% prefer Evangelos Venizelos’ proposal for the establishment of the Democratic Party.

The responses to the poll belong to people who state that they will vote for PASOK in the next elections, i.e. 4.7% of the total number of voters.

In other overt or covert polls on the probability of George Papandreou establishing a new party, his associates say it will win a rate higher "than that of PASOK led by Evangelos Venizelos", i.e. about 6-7%. The collaborators of the PASOK leader state in turn that it will not win more than 2% of the votes. A current minister and senior PASOK member argues before iefimerida.gr, "If Papandreou established a party, neither we nor he would cross the 3% threshold."

In an interview for Real FM radio Minister of Education Andreas Loverdos said that if PASOK were split in two before the elections, this would be the end of this political space.