ATHENS, June 5 (Reuters) - Greece's government rejects an "absurd" and "unrealistic" proposal from creditors and hopes it will be withdrawn, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Friday as he called on lenders to accept a rival proposal from Athens instead. Tsipras was presented with a tough compromise proposal for aid from lenders that crossed many of his "red lines" this week, including tax hikes, privatizations and pension reform, quickly sparking outrage from his leftist Syriza party. In an uncompromising speech to parliament, Tsipras said a proposal by Athens made earlier this week was the only realistic basis for a deal and accused Europe of failing to understand that Greek lawmakers could not vote for more austerity. "The proposals submitted by lenders are unrealistic," Tsipras said, adding the offer did not take into account common ground found between the two sides during months of negotiations. "The Greek government cannot consent to absurd proposals." In what appeared to be a threat against lenders that Greece was prepared to move unilaterally if its demands were not met, Tsipras said the government would legislate the restoration of collective bargaining rights for Greek workers - a move opposed by lenders. Still, Tsipras said he was confident that Greece is closer to a deal than ever, and the Greek proposal took needs of the creditors into account. "Time is not running out only for us, it is running out for everybody else as well," he said. "It's certain that in the coming days we will hear many things since we are in the final stretch." (Reporting by Renee Maltezou, Karolina Tagaris and Angeliki Koutantou; Writing by Deepa Babington; Editing by Peter Graff) -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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