Greek rebel lawmakers may block austerity reforms: deputy Prime Minister

A top Greek minister warned that rebel lawmakers may yet block reforms demanded by international lenders, even though parliament should back an overall austerity package in the coming week to prevent the nation going bankrupt.
Adding to the Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou's dire problems, the conservative opposition rejected on Sunday appeals from the government and senior European Union politicians to do its duty and support the medium-term plan.
Parliament is due to start debating on Monday the programme of tax increases and spending cuts worth 28 billion euros over five years. Papandreou needs parliamentary approval this week to secure the next payment under a 110-billion euro EU/IMF bailout.
In an interview published on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Theodor Pangalos was optimistic about winning the first round of general votes on tax and spending targets plus the creation of a privatisation agency, despite discontent within his PASOK party.
But he was more cautious about whether the government could push through further enabling legislation on individual budget measures and privatisation of specific state assets.
"I think the package of short and medium-term measures with which we basically hope to establish the framework to undertake reforms will be approved without difficulty," Pangalos told Spanish newspaper El Mundo in an interview published on Sunday.
However, he said approval of specific laws to enact fiscal reforms and privatisations of public companies may be more difficult to achieve. "That's where we may have problems. I don't know whether some of our Members of Parliament will vote against it. It's possible," he said.
Without the money from the IMF and European Union, Greece faces the prospect next month of becoming the first eurozone country to default, sending shockwaves through a fragile global financial system.
But many ordinary Greeks, who have lost jobs or seen their real income decline by nearly one-fifth over the last two years, have reacted angrily to measures they say fail to target wealthy tax evaders who they regard as responsible for Greece's plight.
Papandreou's PASOK party has seen its slender majority whittled down by five defections over the last 13 months, leaving it with 155 seats in the 300-member parliament. Two of its legislators have already announced they will not support the deal in the coming week, and a third reiterated on Sunday he would do so only if new Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos gave him assurances.
"I have submitted a 16-point paper to Venizelos and I expect specific answers, on which (my stance) will depend," lawmaker Panagiotis Kouroublis told state radio NET on Sunday.
Ramping up pressure on the government, unions have called a two-day national strike starting on Tuesday. Many companies, including the main electricity group PPC which is slated for partial privatisation next year, have already started rolling strikes. Pangalos, who after a cabinet reshuffle this month shares his deputy premier's title with Venizelos, said he believed the conservative New Democracy opposition party would vote in favour of some of the measures.
But New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras turned a deaf ear to the appeals from home and abroad to support the package, saying the painful measures would only deepen Greece's worst recession in 37 years.
"You can't ask for more taxes in an already overtaxed country, in a market that has been sucked dry, with economic activity at zero and a huge recession," he said in a statement.