George Papandreou: I’ll stand down in June

During the political council of PASOK, George Papandreou announced his decision not to run for the presidency of his party again or for the premiership in the coming elections. Sources say that the election of his successor will be concluded in two phases.

The first thing will be for the party to elect, most probably within January, the one candidate who will fight for the premiership in the next polls, whereas in June, PASOK will vote for its new president. Explaining what led him to his decision, Papandreou said it had to do with “safeguarding the unity of the Papademos government”.