Greek socialist leader George Papandreou on Saturday formally stepped down to let his struggling party elect a successor in time for a snap election expected next month. "The time has come for me to wage my battles from other ramparts," said Papandreou, who resigned as prime minister in November to pave the way for a coalition government to steer the country away from default.
"I took tough decisions. They may have cost me politically but they were worth it," he told a party assembly in a speech met by frequent applause. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos is expected to succeed Papandreou when the socialist Pasok party elects its new leader on March 18. "The battle begins now," Venizelos said. "Our mission is very difficult, it is to rebuild Greece," said the 54-year-old minister, who had unsuccessfully challenged Papandreou for the party leadership in 2007. The socialists swept to power in 2009 on a ticket of economic reforms, but a year later Papandreou's government faced bankruptcy and was forced to sign an unpopular bailout with the EU and IMF that brought tough austerity.
Pensions and salaries have been cut by up to 40 percent in the last two years in an effort to trim Greece's excessive deficit, causing waves of strikes and protests, several of them violent. Venizelos' speech on Saturday was delayed when a pensioner with a crutch and a satchel limped over to the minister and spattered him with yoghurt.