PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos said that the three main issues of the May 6 general elections are how the Memorandum is being administered, how all the other major issues are being dealt with, and how the country will be governed, in a television interview on private MEGA channel on Wednesday night.

Venizelos said that the "money exists" voiced by his predecessor George Papandreou before the previous parliamentary elections was a mistake, while in the first months of the subsequent PASOK governance the "paces were lost" and measures should have been taken then to send a message to the markets and to contain the state deficit.

Venizelos said that the country was led to the first Memorandum "by necessity", noting that he had not been privy to the negotiations at the time and adding that he, personally, was against taking recourse in the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Also, he said the first Memorandum had been insufficient, as it had been based on the presumption that the Greek debt would be rendered sustainable without (salary and pension) reductions, a 'haircut' and the PSI.

He also said that the EU did not fully understand the situation at the time and had been unprepared to deal with such a crisis, adding that it is "tragic" that the eurozone has resorted to the IMF.

Ruling out the prospect of a self-sufficient majority by any party, Venizelos further said that repeat elections in the event that a self-sufficient government does not arise from the May 6 elections "is Mr. Samaras' threat", and warned that such an eventuality would be tantamount to destruction of the economy, and that the country must not find itself in a state of non-governance, accusing New Democracy leader Samaras of having a "fixation" with the premiership, whereas he was not interested in "being a prime minister".

He said that he made agonizing efforts for the country, adding that PASOK must emerge as the first party in the elections in order to lead the effort to create a pro-European progressive majority that will lead Greece from the Memorandum to a National Restructuring Plan.

Replying to questions, Venizelos admitted that scenarios of Greece's exit from the eurozone had been discussed in the previous period in the EU. He said that there had been extensive discussion of the prospect of a structured default which, he added, would have led to eventual exit from the eurozone. In order to avert that danger, the country needed to have the answers and to be able to formulate the necessary correlations and have the ability to negotiate, "and it has been proven that the government had them".

Venizelos also said that the country's fiscal adjustment programme should be extended to 2015, adding that, provided all the structural changes proceed as planned, he himself guarantees that low salaries and pensions will not be touched, that across-the-board cuts will not be made and that new taxes will not be imposed.

"Now we must follow a reverse course," he said, adding that "whoever says that he will not make any cutbacks is lying."