Greek opposition says to vote against new bailout

Reuters
July 2, 2011

Greece's main opposition party will vote against a second bailout for the debt-ridden country, unless the government changes current economic policy, its head Antonis Samaras said in an interview released on Saturday.

The Greek parliament passed two bills this week authorizing 28 billion euros ($39.7 billion) in new tax hikes and spending cuts and opening the way for the disbursement of the next tranche of emergency European Union/International Monetary Fund funding and for a second bailout.

In an interview in Greek weekly Real News, Samaras, head of the conservative opposition New Democracy, said his party, which voted against the first bailout plan, would also oppose a second bailout if the ruling Socialist government did not ease policies he said only harmed an already stricken economy.

"We will vote against it (the bailout), if they don't change the economic policy, which is a policy of suffocation," Samaras was quoted as saying.

"We want to annihilate the deficit. We don't want to bring Greek people, the Greek middle class and Greek families to their knees."

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