Greece’s opposition leader insists that his party will vote against the government’s latest round of austerity measures, dashing hopes that the nation’s political class will unite in a last-ditch effort to prevent a sovereign debt default.
“They are asking me to support the same kind of medicine for someone who is dying from that medicine. I will not do it,” Antonis Samaras, leader of the conservative New Democracy party, told the Financial Times in an interview.
The socialist government plans to enact a €28bn ($40bn) package of spending cuts and tax increases next week to secure the next €12bn tranche of a €110bn international loan needed to avoid default.