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Greek election: Parties make final push for votes | Greek election: Parties make final push for votes |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Parties in Greece are making their last pitch for votes ahead of a repeat election seen as crucial to the debt-laden country's future in the eurozone. | Parties in Greece are making their last pitch for votes ahead of a repeat election seen as crucial to the debt-laden country's future in the eurozone. |
New Democracy, the pro-bailout conservative party which narrowly led at the ballot last month, is due to hold its last big campaign rally. | New Democracy, the pro-bailout conservative party which narrowly led at the ballot last month, is due to hold its last big campaign rally. |
Syriza, the anti-bailout bloc which surged to second place in May, held its final rally in Athens on Thursday. | Syriza, the anti-bailout bloc which surged to second place in May, held its final rally in Athens on Thursday. |
Unofficial opinion polls suggest a fall in support for anti-bailout parties. | Unofficial opinion polls suggest a fall in support for anti-bailout parties. |
Under Greek election law, official opinion polls are banned in the two weeks before the election. | Under Greek election law, official opinion polls are banned in the two weeks before the election. |
Tough austerity measures were attached to the two international bailouts awarded to Greece, an initial package worth 110bn euros (£89bn; $138bn) in 2010, then a follow-up last year worth 130bn euros. | Tough austerity measures were attached to the two international bailouts awarded to Greece, an initial package worth 110bn euros (£89bn; $138bn) in 2010, then a follow-up last year worth 130bn euros. |
While five of the seven main political groups reject the last bailout, only one - the Communists - wants the country to abandon the euro. | While five of the seven main political groups reject the last bailout, only one - the Communists - wants the country to abandon the euro. |
Germany, which has the eurozone's most powerful economy, insists Greece, like other member-states which have received international bailouts, must abide by the austerity conditions. | Germany, which has the eurozone's most powerful economy, insists Greece, like other member-states which have received international bailouts, must abide by the austerity conditions. |
German Bundesbank (central bank) chief Jens Weidmann repeated the warning on Friday, adding that the eurozone could not allow any country to "blackmail" it with the threat of financial contagion. | German Bundesbank (central bank) chief Jens Weidmann repeated the warning on Friday, adding that the eurozone could not allow any country to "blackmail" it with the threat of financial contagion. |
Spanish example | |
At Thursday's rally, Syriza leader Alexis Tspiras renewed his pledge to tear up the bailout conditions, which involve drastic spending cuts, tax rises, and labour market and pension reforms. | |
"The memorandum of bankruptcy will belong to the past on Monday," he told supporters in Omonoia Square. | |
"Brussels expect us, we are coming on Monday to negotiate over people's rights, to cancel the bailout." | |
He pointed to the huge bank loan package deal between the EU and Spain on Sunday, arguing a bailout was possible without the kind of drastic cuts demanded of Greece. | |
"Spain negotiated and succeeded in taking financial support without a fiscal consolidation package, despite the lenders' threats and blackmail," Mr Tsipras said. | |
Interviewed by Spanish daily El Pais, Jens Weidmann called for the eurozone to impose broad conditions on Spain over its loan package, worth up to 100bn euros. | |
He warned that Greece, but also the Irish Republic and Portugal, had been given the impression that this was a "rescue with no conditionality outside the financial system" and this was "already eroding the commitment to the terms of the existing programmes". | |
"But foot-dragging on addressing the structural problems will perpetuate the crisis, and the market reaction reflects this concern," Germany's top banker said. | |
On Friday evening, New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras is expected to address his supporters in the capital's Syntagma Square, near the Greek parliament. | |
Mr Samaras, who wants to ease the bailout conditions, has accused anti-bailout parties of "playing poker" with Greece. | |
"There is the path of responsibility, in which you are clear about what you want, and we say we want the euro and re-negotiation [of the bailout]," he said, quoted by Reuters news agency. |