As tens of thousands of people take to the streets, finance minister implores MPs to back €13.5bn package in parliament
Facing its greatest challenge since assuming power in June, Greece's fragile coalition government is heading for a cliffhanger vote on fresh austerity measures with the country paralysed by a 48-hour general strike. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Tuesday to protest over policies that have increased poverty and unemployment.
With Greece's eurozone future dependent on passage of the €13.5bn package, the finance minister, Yiannis Stournaras, implored wavering MPs to back the bill, saying it was the only way of assuring debt-stricken Athens did not default on its mountain of debt.
"The country has to adopt this package of measures to which it has committed to avoid bankruptcy," the technocrat told a parliamentary committee on the eve of the ballot. "We are now at the most crucial crossroads and we have to make the right decision. The road ahead is difficult and steep but it is our historic responsibility to complete the effort that we have begun."
International creditors at the EU and IMF say adoption of the budget cuts is crucial to releasing €31.5bn in rescue funds that are desperately needed by a state whose coffers are due to run dry by 16 November.
The country's embattled prime minister, Antonis Samaras, has pledged the measures "will be the very last" to be imposed on a nation whose disposable income has dropped by an estimated 35% since the eruption of Europe's debt crisis in Athens three years ago. But with pensions and wages set to be slashed, taxes increased and the retirement age raised, the promise has fallen on deaf ears with unions and anti-bailout forces, led by the radical left main opposition Syriza party, vowing to step up opposition on the street and in the corridors of power.
"At any moment there could be an eruption of blind violence," said Panos Skourletis, Syriza's spokesman. "Even if these measures are passed," he added referring to the package which is expected to be endorsed, if narrowly, by Athens' 300-seat house, "they will never be able to enforce them because Greeks are at the end of their tether."
Unionists described Tuesday's peaceful demonstrations – which drew as many as 40,000 people according to police – as a "dress rehearsal" for the fiery protests that would coincide with the vote on Wednesday.
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