Tsipras facing resistance at home to new bailout deal

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras is facing a battle to cling on to his government&&num;8217&semi;s majority&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He was recently forced to shred election promises and introduce punishing austerity measures in exchange for a bailout deal with the country&&num;8217&semi;s European creditors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With members of his own party openly condemning the preliminary rescue deal&comma; Mr Tsipras&comma; who flew home from gruelling night-long negotiations with European leaders&comma; will chair an executive meeting of his Syriza party before MPs begin a two-day debate on the deal&comma; which will heap more tax rises and spending cuts on a nation already suffering through six years of recession&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The deal ensures that Greece avoids an imminent financial catastrophe and an exit from the eurozone&comma; but Panos Kammenos&comma; leader of the junior partner in Mr Tsipras&&num;8217&semi; coalition government&comma; called the bailout plan a German-led &&num;8220&semi;coup&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;This deal introduced many new issues &&num;8230&semi; we cannot agree with it&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said after meeting Mr Tsipras&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Other Greeks rallied outside parliament in Athens&comma; urging MPs to reject the new demands&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Around 30 out of Syriza&&num;8217&semi;s 149 members are likely to vote against the government&period; Many held private meetings last night&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Tsipras&comma; 40&comma; had to consent to a raft of austerity measures&comma; including sales tax increases and pension and workplace reforms &&num;8211&semi; measures he had campaigned vociferously against over the last five years of Greece&&num;8217&semi;s financial crisis&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since his election in January&comma; Mr Tsipras has faced intense pressure to backpedal on many of his promises to Greece&&num;8217&semi;s exhausted electorate&period; Finally&comma; faced by the leaders of the 18 other nations that share the euro and the knowledge that Greek banks were just days away from running out of money&comma; the moment came when he could no longer resist&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A series of supposed red lines vanished&comma; including objections to tight international oversight of Greece&&num;8217&semi;s economy&comma; continued involvement by the International Monetary Fund in Greece&&num;8217&semi;s bailout programme and cuts to pensions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The result of the marathon negotiations are about €85bn in loans and financial support for Greece over three years that will preserve its membership in the euro&comma; shore up its banks and allow a modicum of stability to return to the battered Greek economy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Creditors have also dangled the carrot of a possible future debt restructuring in the event of a smooth bailout&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We managed to avoid the most extreme measures&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Mr Tsipras said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But in many cases&comma; ordinary Greeks now face tougher measures than those they voted down in a nationwide referendum a little over a week ago&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Syriza&&num;8217&semi;s Left Platform&comma; a group of traditionalists in Mr Tsipras&&num;8217&semi; own party&comma; swiftly denounced the agreement as the &&num;8220&semi;worst deal possible &&num;8230&semi; &lpar;one&rpar; that maintains the country&&num;8217&semi;s status&colon; a debt colony under a German-run European Union&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Experts were divided over the result&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;It was the best deal the Greeks could get&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says Jacob Kirkegaard&comma; a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics&period; &&num;8220&semi;They did not do too badly given the terrible&comma; terrible&comma; disastrous starting point the current government put them in&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But Ashoka Mody&comma; visiting professor of international finance at Princeton University&comma; says the deal just repeats policies that have already failed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The economics of this programme have been set up for failure&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period; &&num;8220&semi;In three years&comma; if this programme is implemented&comma; the Greek economy will be 10&percnt; smaller than it was and the debt burden will be higher&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In many ways&comma; Mr Tsipras&&num;8217&semi; hard work begins now&period; As part of the deal&comma; his government has to get the Greek parliament to back a series of economic measures by tomorrow that creditors are demanding&period; And in the weeks to come Greece will have to make further changes to its economy&comma; such as opening to competition industries like energy that have long been protected&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Trust needs to be rebuilt&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said German chancellor Angela Merkel&comma; adding that with the deal &&num;8220&semi;Greece has a chance to return to the path of growth&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Passage of the new measures appears assured&comma; since Greece&&num;8217&semi;s opposition parties have pledged to support Mr Tsipras&&num;8217&semi; deal&period; But dissent within the ruling Syriza party is threatening his coalition&comma; raising the prospect of some sort of national unity government or an early election later this year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Greece needs another bailout&comma; its third in five years&comma; to cope with its mountain of debt and get its economy back on track after a six-year retreat that evokes memories of the 1930s Great Depression in the US&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Greek economy has been pushed to the brink of collapse &&num;8211&semi; banks have been shut down for two weeks and restrictions limit withdrawals to €60 a day and normal business has almost ground to a halt&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When the Greek banks eventually reopen&comma; they will most likely have to depend on more emergency credit from the European Central Bank&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Indications are that the ECB will not sanction further help until the Greek parliament passes the first set of creditor demands tomorrow&period; And even if the ECB does start raising its emergency liquidity allowance&comma; Greek capital controls are expected to remain for many months more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Greece has other financing needs beyond its banks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On July 20&comma; it has to make a €4&period;2bn debt repayment to the ECB&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It is also in arrears on about €1&period;5bn owed to the International Monetary Fund&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since its bailout programme is not going to be in place by then &&num;8211&semi; Jeroen Dijsselbloem&comma; the eurozone&&num;8217&semi;s top official&comma; estimated that would take about four weeks &&num;8211&semi; Greece will need some further help&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If Greece meets all of the requirements spelled out in the agreement&comma; the country will get a three-year rescue programme and the commitment to restructure its debt&comma; which is unsustainably high at around €320bn&comma; or around 180&percnt; of its annual GDP&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed135425e2f">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; 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