PASOK leader George Papandreou gestures during his closing speech at the party’s national council meeting in Thessaloniki. Papandreou accused the government’s policies of being disastrous for the country and said PASOK would try to get its message across to the electorate this fall. Thessaloniki MP Evangelos Venizelos suggested that the party is wrong to hope that the government will crumble under the pressure of the scandals in which it has become embroiled. Venizelos said this was a ‘strategic mistake’ and that PASOK had to become ‘part of the solution.’