Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, is preparing for a make-or-break parliamentary vote over the austerity measures Athens must take in exchange for a fresh bailout from its eurozone partners.
Just hours before the vote, Tsipras suffered a blow with the loss of a key minister, Nadia Valavani. The deputy finance minister resigned, saying it was “impossible” for her to keep serving in the Tsipras government given the austerity measures he had agreed to. She warned the nation faced a “crushing” capitulation at the hands of its creditors in Brussels.
Tsipras must keep the number of rebels within his own party below 40, in order to pass the measures required as part of the controversial rescue package agreed after marathon talks over the weekend.
Athens parliament will vote tonight on the bailout plan demanded by creditors, which the International Monetary Fund has just savaged.
The deal – which includes austerity measures tougher than those overwhelmingly rejected by the Greek public in a referendum this month – has come under fresh fire, after the International Monetary Fund published a highly critical paper calling for large-scale debt relief for the stricken country.
The IMF’s “debt sustainability analysis”, which was published by the Washington-based lender after parts of it were leaked to the media, suggested Greece may need a 30-year moratorium on repayments; or a substantial “haircut” – a partial write-off of its debts.
Greece is already in arrears to the IMF, and the emergence of the paper raised doubts whether the Washington-based lender would be willing to contribute to another Greek bailout.
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