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Greek Coalition Allies Snub PM’s Appeal on Austerity Thomson-Reuters The Greek prime minister's appeal for a united front to push through more austerity fell on deaf ears on Tuesday, with one ally promising to vote against reforms and another scolding him for prematurely saying talks had ended. A flurry of contradictory statements from the three parties in Greece's ruling coalition highlighted the chaos ahead of a crucial vote on austerity measures, which is turning into the government's biggest test since taking power in June. Near-bankrupt Greece needs to push through spending cuts and tax measures worth 13.5 billion euros as well as a raft of reforms to appease EU and IMF lenders and secure bailout money needed to avoid running out of cash next month. But a deal has been held up by the small Democratic Left party's refusal to back labor reforms, which has tempted other lawmakers to defect and leaves the government facing an unpredictable vote in parliament next week. After months of negotiations on the austerity plan, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras announced on Tuesday that talks had been completed and implored his allies to back the package. "What would happen if the deal isn't passed and the country is led to chaos?" Samaras said in a statement. "Such dangers must be avoided. That is the responsibility of each party and every lawmaker individually." The Democratic Left party immediately responded by reiterating it would vote against labor reforms. "The Democratic Left has fought on the issue of labor relations, to protect workers' rights which have been already weakened," the party said in statement. "It does not agree with the result of the negotiations. The Democratic Left sticks to its position." The other junior partner in Samaras's coalition, the Socialist PASOK, then interrupted a party meeting to put out a statement chiding Samaras for saying talks had concluded. "A rushed press release that says 'the government did what it could, it is moving ahead and whoever wants to should follow it' ... is at best unfortunate," the party's chief said in the statement. The once-mighty Socialists, who have seen their support evaporate in the face of continued austerity, have also criticized the labor reforms but have not explicitly said how they will vote. The party has hinted it will vote in favor, to preserve political stability. The government is expected to include a large chunk of the austerity measures in the 2013 budget bill to be presented on Wednesday, with the remaining measures and labor reforms in a separate bill to be put to parliament on Monday. READ FULL SOURCE ARTICLE The BasicsProject.org informational and educational pamphlet series is now available for Kindle and iPad. Click here to find out more... The New Media Journal and BasicsProject.org are not funded by outside sources. We exist exclusively on tax deductible donations from our readers and contributors. Please make a tax deductible donation today.
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