ATHENS (AFP) ― Greece’s Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was elected leader of the socialist party PASOK on Sunday, and now faces a Herculean battle to avert disaster in upcoming elections.

The 55-year-old politician, the only candidate to run for the job relinquished by former prime minister George Papandreou, told supporters at party heaquarters: “We have re-established the confidence for a new departure. We are starting.”

According to Pasok estimates, some 200,000 party members or sympathizers took part in the nationwide vote.

But the task now facing Venizelos is a daunting one.

Although Pasok has ruled Greece for a combined two decades since democracy was restored in 1974 after a seven-year army dictatorship, the socialists are in free fall in opinion polls, hitting all-time lows.

They are paying the price for the harsh austerity measures they imposed on the country to beat the debt crisis. Those policies were part of the deal brokered with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to get a first bailout loan of 110 billion euros in May 2010.

But it brought them under increasing pressure, both in parliament and on the streets, as cuts sparked a succession of strikes and sometimes violent protests.

Papandreou was forced to step down as prime minister in November to avert a backbencher revolt in parliament.

The socialist administration was replaced by a coalition government comprising socialists, the centre right and the far right and led by Lucas Papademos, a former European Central Bank executive.

Venizelos, a French-educated law professor from the northern metropolis of Thessaloniki, said earlier that Sunday’s vote would be an opportunity to rally the party.

“I am certain that with a large turnout we will prove wrong all those who think that the great democratic party can’t recover,” he said after casting his ballot in a suburb in western Athens.

Venizelos is hoping to capitalize on a record deal with private investors last week to erase more than 100 billion euros ($130 billion) of near- and mid-term debt to give Greece time to enact additional reforms needed for future loans. But the IMF reminded Athens on Friday that the pressure is not off.

Greece has “little if any margin” for slippage on reforms under its new bailout program, according to IMF documentation for its loan to Athens.

The IMF, which decided a new 28 billion euro loan for Greece on Thursday, said Greece could reach its debt reduction targets if it keeps to the tough austerity measures ― including slashing minimum wages, trimming pensions and cutting 15,000 public jobs this year.

But if implementation proves too slow or falls short, or if the economy does not respond as fast as expected, “a deeper recession and a much higher debt trajectory would be the likely result.”

“Political risks linked to the electoral calendar create additional uncertainty about policy implementation,” the IMF added.

Venizelos insists that his goal is to win the next legislative election, which has not been officially announced but is expected in late April or early May.