(Reuters) - Greece's president used an annual commemoration of the country's stand against fascism in World War Two on Oct. 28 to warn that Athens would not yield to pressure from foreign lenders to impose more austerity.
The blunt comments by President Karolos Papoulias - a former World War II resistance fighter who holds a ceremonial but revered post - come as Athens finds itself at odds with its EU/IMF lenders over budget savings to hit targets under its second bailout.
At an annual military parade in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, marking the rejection of Italy's ultimatum to Greece to surrender in 1940 - one of the most symbolic events in Greece's political calendar - Papoulias said Greeks today were as firm in the face of crisis as they were then and would not give in to what he called foreign 'blackmail'.
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