Greek former Prime Minister George Papandreou said on Friday that he will form a new political party which will participate in the snap general elections set for January 25.

Papandreou said he will formally announce the establishment of the party on Saturday in Athens.

The campaigning kicked off on New Year's Eve after the issuance of the presidential decree for the dissolution of the parliament, following legislators' failure to elect the next head of state in the third voting round on December 29.

"The time has come for the next great step for the country's progressive forces," Papandreou said in a written statement.

"We will be participating in a movement which will work in the next parliament to ensure that all the necessary steps will be taken to exit the crisis for good," he wrote.

"Greece cannot recover for good unless it changes for good, from its foundations, based on a 'Greek Plan'," he added, without detailing the outline of the plan or the name of the new party.

Papandreou served as the Greece's prime minister from September 2009 to November 2011. He stepped down to make way for an interim coalition government to continue efforts to deal with the crisis.

In March 2012, he resigned from the leadership of PASOK, the party which was founded by his late father Andreas Papandreou who had also served as Greek prime minister, following his call for a referendum on the tough austerity and reform program introduced in 2010 to tackle the crisis.

His critics said that he dared to propose a risky wager that could lead to Greece's exit from the euro zone, as recession-hit Greeks were protesting for months on the streets against the harsh cutbacks on wages and pensions implemented under a bailout deal with international lenders in return for vital rescue loans to avert default.

Papandreou defended his decision to ask the people to decide on the nation's course, exercising their rights in the country which gave birth to democracy.

Papandreou leads a new party which could split PASOK party voters and win over votes from main opposition Radical Left SYRIZA party and moderate centre-Left parties, such as the River founded last year ahead of the May elections for the European parliament, political analysts say.

According to the latest opinion survey released this week, SYRIZA, which advocates a tougher negotiation over the terms of Greece's post-bailout relationship with international creditors, took the lead over the New Democracy (ND) party of incumbent Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

SYRIZA garners 29.5 percent of votes against 25 percent for ND. Both parties fall far short of the percentage needed to secure outright parliamentary majority, meaning that the winner will need to strike an alliance with smaller parties after the election, as it had happened in the 2012 general elections.

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