7-day "deadline" for George to resign

PASOK members are looking for a way to stay united. Last night a lot of meetings took place in homes and offices and lasted throughout the night. Presidential, Venizelists and MPs who support the Troika met to determine their stance: the latter two groups to arrange the final attack and the former to establish a line of defense.

Reportedly, a double request was made at the meeting of the Members who support Venizelos: for the PM to resign within 7 days and for the vice-president and finmin to clarify his position. Specifically, members such as Eva Kaili, Soula Merentiti, Tonia Antoniou, Odysseus Konstantinopoulos, Costas Kartalis, Nassos Alevras and Dimitris Lintzeris agreed that it would give confidence to the government if the PM pledged that he will immediately start negotiations for the new government and conclude them next week. Otherwise they would all become independent.

On the other hand MP Elena Panariti, who announced on Thursday that she will not give a confidence vote as she disagreed with the referendum, ultimately decided to support the government. In a statement to protothema.gr she clarified that she will give the vote, explaining that "once the referendum was withdrawn, I had no argument to vote against."

Regarding Venizelos’ line, it is expected to condense to a plea to MPs: "Give the confidence vote to strengthen the government to proceed with the transition." The same route is followed by the Troika four… Andreas Loverdos, John Ragousis, Anna Diamantopoulou and Elias Mossialos have clarified their stance. And they expect the PM to facilitate developments and safeguard the unity of PASOK.

The presidentials focus on PASOK too, gathering at the offices of the party in parliament. They are greater in number and appear determined to follow Papandreou in whatever choice he makes. If he decides to stay they will support him by denouncing the others as apostates. They showed their mood yesterday at the PG, which they broke up just because they wanted to. But they do have a line of defense; for Papandreou to remain as the president of PASOK, so that it won’t pass straight to the hands of Venizelos or the Troika if the PM resigns from office.