Democratic Alignment later evolved into Movement for Change, which in the 2019 elections was the third most voted-for party, with Papandreou himself returning to Parliament as an MP representing the region of Achaea.

In his second term as Minister of Education, Papandreou was the first politician in Greece to introduce affirmative action, allocating 5% of university posts for the Muslim minority in Thrace.

Even if Papandreou had no opponent, this was a move designed to solidify the open primaries, democratize the party, and make a clean break with the tradition of "dynastic politics".

[16] Upon inauguration, Papandreou's government revealed that its finances were far worse than previous announcements, with a year deficit of 12.7% of GDP, four times more than the eurozone's limit, and a public debt of $410 billion.

The announced austerity program caused a wave of nationwide strikes[23] and has been criticised by both the EU and the eurozone nations' finance ministers as falling short of its goals.

[26] On 23 April 2010, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that Greece made a request for a Stand-By Arrangement.

[27] Papandreou and his Finance Minister Giorgos Papakonstantinou managed to convince the IMF and EU to participate in a €110bn bailout package on 9 May 2010.

[28] In an opinion poll published on 18 May 2011, 77% of the people asked said they had no faith in Papandreou as prime minister in handling the Greek economic crisis.

[35] On 17 September, he cancelled a visit to the IMF building in Washington, D.C., and the UN Headquarters in New York City amid mounting concern over the country's debt crisis.

[36] An opinion poll by Public Issue[clarification needed] on behalf of Skai TV and Kathimerini in October 2011 showed that Papandreou's popularity had dropped considerably.

[37] Of the people asked, only 23% had a positive view of George Papandreou,[37] while 73% had a negative opinion;[37] ranking him lower than any other leader of a party in the Hellenic Parliament.

[39] On 31 October, Papandreou announced his government's plans to hold a referendum on the acceptance of the terms of a eurozone bailout deal.

[42] On 5 November, his government only narrowly won a confidence vote in parliament[43] and opposition leader Antonis Samaras called for immediate elections.

The next day Papandreou met with opposition leaders trying to reach an agreement on the formation of an interim national unity government.

However, Samaras gave in only after Papandreou agreed to step aside, allowing the EU bailout to proceed and paving the way for elections on 19 February 2012.

[44][45] Both the Communist Party (KKE) and the leftist SYRIZA coalition had refused Papandreou's invitation to join talks on a new unity government.

[46] After several days of intense negotiations, the two major parties along with the Popular Orthodox Rally agreed to form a grand coalition headed by former vice president of the European Central Bank Lucas Papademos.

Launching his new party Movement of Democratic Socialists to contest the 25 January 2015 parliamentary elections, he confirmed the long-expected breakup with PASOK.

"[55] In March 2017, at the Congress of the Socialist International that took place in Cartagena, Colombia, Papandreou was unanimously re-elected president of the organization.

[63][64] In 2016, Papandreou co-signed a letter to Ban Ki-moon calling for a more humane drug policy, along with people like Glenn Greenwald, Olusegun Obasanjo and Anthony Romero.