PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos admitted on Saturday that next month’s elections are leading to a deadlock and promised to ask for an extension from two to three years for the application of the measures to collect an extra 11.6 billion euros.

In an interview with Skai television Venizelos said that “the elections ahead of us have our very existence at stake and should leave Greece standing and stable. Opinion polls are showing that we are heading for a deadlock. We need to go to a national agreement. The first place is a necessity for PASOK,” said the former Finance Minister.

He added that the crisis is far from over and the risk of exiting the eurozone and returning to the drachma still exists, as “Europe does not decide rationally.”

He said he will push for the measures for the collection of 11.6 billion euros in 2013 and 2014 to be spread across three years instead and stressed there will be no extra tax burden and no horizontal cut to pensions.

Notably Venizelos said he did not agree with the PASOK motto of 2009 that there was disposable money around, suggesting he was not asked about it so he did not voice his disagreement.

Also on Saturday former minister Stefanos Manos, the head of small liberal party Drasi, accused PASOK and New Democracy of ruining the country saying “they should not even get 20 percent between them.”

Manos has been elected on both New Democracy and PASOK tickets in the last 25 years.