As Greece
enters a pivotal week in its economic crisis, tensions between the
Greek government and the country’s international lenders have reached a
boiling point. The government is resisting a push by the International Monetary Fund to impose additional austerity measures that Greek leaders fear could destabilize the shaky coalition government.
Although those talks are expected to resume later this week, they have
been suspended since an angry exchange last week between the Greek
finance minister and the I.M.F.’s top negotiator for Greece.
The impasse has elevated tensions here as Greece braces for a nationwide
general strike planned on Wednesday that threatens to bring public
services to a halt. The Greek people are increasingly angry over the
prospect that public salaries and pensions will be cut again in a
last-ditch bid to secure a new loan installment of 31.5 billion euros,
or $40.7 billion, from Greece’s creditors.
The Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras,
plans to address the nation this week to bolster support for the
austerity package. He has already publicly warned his center-right
party, New Democracy, that he will oust lawmakers of the party failing
to back the package once it comes up for a vote, probably in early
October.
Various European leaders have gone out of their way in recent weeks to
voice support for the Greek government, which came to power in June. And
they have praised the Samaras government’s renewed commitment to taking
difficult steps to revamp the economy despite concern that Greece could
be a ward of its euro zone partners for years to come. Chancellor Angela Merkel
of Germany has joined France in declaring that Greece must stay in the
euro union to avoid even the perception that the union would be
vulnerable to a wider breakup.
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