ATHENS: Greek lawmakers looked set to endorse a new and deeply unpopular austerity deal on Sunday to secure a multi-billion-euro bailout and avert what Prime Minister Lucas Papademos warned would be "economic chaos".
After days of dire warnings and threats of rebellion, parliament began debating the bill setting out 3.3 billion euros ($4.35 billion) in wage, pension and job cuts as the price of a 130-billion-euro rescue package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund - Greece's second since 2010.
Greece needs the funds before March 20 to meet debt repayments of 14.5 billion euros.
But the bill has caused turmoil within the ruling coalition and deepened a social crisis among Greeks already hit by a round of cuts and tax hikes to ease the country's huge debt burden.
During the debate a Communist Party deputy hurled the pages of the bill on the floor of the chamber and in fiery exchanges with lawmakers, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos warned them: "If the law is not passed, the country will go bankrupt."
He said the vote in the 300-seat parliament, which began shortly after 2 p.m. (1200 GMT), had to come by midnight "because come Monday morning, banking and financial markets must get the message that Greece can and will survive."
Euro zone paymaster Germany ratcheted up the pressure on Sunday, saying Europe needed action, not words.
Late on Saturday Papademos had warned that failure to back the bill would mean a disorderly default and "set the country on a disastrous adventure". Greece was nearing "ground zero", he said in an address to the nation .
"It would create conditions of uncontrolled economic chaos and social explosion," Papademos said.
"The country would be drawn into a vortex of recession, instability, unemployment and protracted misery and this would sooner or later lead the country out of the euro," he said.
indiatimes.com
After days of dire warnings and threats of rebellion, parliament began debating the bill setting out 3.3 billion euros ($4.35 billion) in wage, pension and job cuts as the price of a 130-billion-euro rescue package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund - Greece's second since 2010.
Greece needs the funds before March 20 to meet debt repayments of 14.5 billion euros.
But the bill has caused turmoil within the ruling coalition and deepened a social crisis among Greeks already hit by a round of cuts and tax hikes to ease the country's huge debt burden.
During the debate a Communist Party deputy hurled the pages of the bill on the floor of the chamber and in fiery exchanges with lawmakers, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos warned them: "If the law is not passed, the country will go bankrupt."
He said the vote in the 300-seat parliament, which began shortly after 2 p.m. (1200 GMT), had to come by midnight "because come Monday morning, banking and financial markets must get the message that Greece can and will survive."
Euro zone paymaster Germany ratcheted up the pressure on Sunday, saying Europe needed action, not words.
Late on Saturday Papademos had warned that failure to back the bill would mean a disorderly default and "set the country on a disastrous adventure". Greece was nearing "ground zero", he said in an address to the nation .
"It would create conditions of uncontrolled economic chaos and social explosion," Papademos said.
"The country would be drawn into a vortex of recession, instability, unemployment and protracted misery and this would sooner or later lead the country out of the euro," he said.
indiatimes.com
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