2/10/2012 1:52 PM ET
(RTTNews) - Four ministers in the coalition government of Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos resigned Friday to protest against the austerity measures demanded by the troika of international creditors in return for a new EUR130 billion ($170bn) bailout loan.
Deputy Foreign Minister Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou of the majority Socialist party was among the four ministers who resigned over the planned spending cuts. The remaining three, including transport minister and deputy ministers for merchant marine and agriculture, are from the the right-wing LAOS party.
The LAOS party is a junior member in the Papademos government. Although the party had agreed to the austerity measures a day earlier, its leader George Karatzaferis said Friday that all of party's 16 deputies would vote against the planned spending cuts when it comes for voting in the parliament.
The major coalition partners in the Greek government, which is backed by 252 lawmakers, are the socialist Pasok party and the conservative New Democracy party. The two parties together account for more than 230 deputies in the parliament. The planned austerity measures would be approved in the parliament if they are backed by the two major coalition partners, despite opposition from LAOS.
The ministers' resignations came amidst widespread protests as well as a 48-hour strike over the austerity proposals. Workers unions claim that such measures will impoverish the country's population further and drag it deeper into recession. There were several reports of clashes between protesters and riot police in Athens and several other Greek towns and cities on Friday.
A day earlier, eurozone finance ministers had deferred the approval of the new bailout package for Greece, saying that the debt-ridden euro member should ratify a new set of austerity measures for receiving the EUR130 billion ($172.52 billion) aid to finance its debts.
Euro-group chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said after the meeting that the Greek parliament must ratify the package on Sunday and urged it to find a further euro 325 million in savings to cover budget shortfall for 2012. He also demanded "strong political assurances" from the leaders of the coalition parties on the implementation of the program, as Greece has repeatedly failed in the past to carry out planned reforms.
If the new bailout package gets ratified by the Greek Parliament on Sunday and approved by the eurozone finance ministers when they reconvene next Wednesday in Brussels, Athens would then be on track to receive sufficient funds for repaying a EUR14.5 billion bond due on March 20.
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