In my reading, DSK's claim means that Papandreou saw that Greece's finances are unsustainable, and being beholden to neoliberal thinking, saw neolib 'reforms' as the only possible solution – and thought that he can put them into practice without too much poll number damage if it is seen by the population as IMF dictate. However, I can't think of a single government, especially left-wing, that executed a shock therapy under IMF command and survived it electorally. Then again, believing otherwise would be par for the course for our totally self-defeating centre-left.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}