Former socialist PASOK prime minister George Papandreou this week forecast that his newly founded party, the Movement of Democratic Socialists, will be the “surprise” in Sunday’s snap general election.

Papandreou broke ranks with the party he once led and which was established by his father no less, Andreas Papandreou in 1974, after sharply criticizing its current leadership.

The one-time socialist premier and foreign minister said he won’t cooperate with PM Antonis Samaras, should the latter’s New Democracy party win the election. He charged that Samaras backed down on needed reforms and only implemented spending cuts and tax hikes.

Speaking to supporters at a central Athens sports hall on Wednesday evening, he more-or-less framed his new party as a partner in a future coalition government, but without becoming anyone’s “crutch”.

Papandreou defended his never-materialized decision to call a referendum in late 2011 over a bailout package his government was called on to implement, saying, in fact, it was a “Greek plan”. His referendum idea, and especially a decision seek a rescue package from the EC-ECB-IMF “troika” while allowing creditors oversight of the Greek economy to ensure that austerity measurers were implemented, quickly evaporated his “political capital”.

Papandreou also didn’t shy away from reliving a pre-election phrase — prior to the October 2009 election he won – that has soiled his political image ever since, namely, the infamous “… the money’s there” quip, promising increased social spending and benefits.

On Wednesday, he was careful to add “ifs”.

“If we change structures …  The money is there if a fair tax system exists; the money is there if we establish a transparent public sector that serves the citizen, the pensioner, the unemployed person, the family and not various vested interests.”