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A kiss between Evangelos Venizelos and Andreas Loverdos similar to the legendary one between Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker sealed their union for conquering the PASOK leadership. Now that the Minister of Health has withdrawn his candidature, his colleague from the financial institution finds himself a step closer to the leadership post of the Socialists.

"We will unite our efforts because our party cannot stand splits any longer and the country needs stability," said Andreas Loverdos at a joint press conference. Thus, he made an indirect appeal to the other contenders to follow his example, especially given that he was the most popular opponent of Evangelos Venizelos.

The reason for the political alliance between the two men is apparently the unprecedented negative attitude of society towards PASOK. According to recent polls, the party is the third and in some cases, even the fourth choice of voters. Commentators believe that Evangelos Venizelos and Andreas Loverdos have decided to join forces seeing that an electoral battle between them before the general election would prove fateful for the future of PASOK. This was the argument of one of the inspirers of yesterday’s union - Minister of Agriculture Costas Skandalidis, in whose office the final decision was taken. A crucial role in the "negotiations" was played by the Minister of Administrative Reform Dimitris Repas.

An interesting fact is that almost all the major politicians from PASOK such as Anna Diamandopoulou and Yannis Ragousis had been informed about yesterday's event in time, but not the current party leader. He was informed by his staff. Evangelos Venizelos publicly acknowledged this fact by simply expressing his hope the George Papandreou would look at the initiative positively.

However, unnamed sources claim that George Papandreou had been informed of the events by a minister. However, he has not disclosed how he will respond.

Collaborators of the recent Prime Minister, who have been overwhelmed by questions from the media, responded that the decisions about choosing a new leader of PASOK have already been approved by the political and national councils of the party. So, they wanted to emphasize that George Papandreou will push all the way for the proper implementation of the Party Constitution, but also respond to rumours that a wave of discontent will sweep over him at tomorrow's meeting of the parliamentary group. It is believed that "green" members will call on him to speed up the procedures for electing a new party leader. According to rumours from late last night, great efforts are being made behind the scenes to avoid turning the internal party meeting into a ring.

It is believed that traditional party representatives as Costas Skandalidis and Vasso Papandreou will again propose the immediate election of a new leader to avoid the retention of George Papandreou's leadership position until March. According to the same sources, it is possible that they will propose a new meeting of the national council or even an extraordinary congress to vote the change of recently made decisions. The main argument will be that after he announced that he would not run for leader, there is no reason for the party to remain without leadership during the next two tense months and in anticipation of extraordinary national elections.

So far, no one dares to predict the reaction of George Papandreou to such a proposal. But even those of the prominent party functionaries who were sceptical of the union Venizelos - Loverdos recognize that it will be difficult for him to refuse the expediting of the change in the leadership of PASOK. Especially if the majority of deputies declare in favour of immediate elections involving all party members and sympathisers.