Greek leader faces dissent at home over debt deal

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faced open revolt from some of his own ministers as he tried Tuesday to rally support for a financial rescue agreement that includes measures that will cause more economic pain for Greeks.

The government must pass a raft of measures through Parliament by Wednesday night, including consumer tax increases and pension reforms, in order to start negotiations with European creditors on a third bailout worth as much as 85 billion euros, or $95 billion.

Tsipras faced a stark choice at a marathon eurozone summit that ended Monday morning: agree to the deal that tramples on practically all of his pre-election promises to repeal austerity, or see his country's banks collapse and Greece crash out of Europe's joint currency.

While Greece tries to fulfill the conditions of the deal, European Union finance ministers were trying to find a way to give Greece a quick cash infusion so that it can avoid defaulting on a debt repayment next week.

Tsipras is expected to have the numbers in Parliament to pass the measures, since he will have the support of most opposition parties. But the government's political survival is in danger if large numbers of its own lawmakers resign their seats or openly vote against the bill. There was some speculation, including in Germany's mass-selling Bild newspaper, that Tsipras could resign.

Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, one of the hardliners in Tsipras' radical left Syriza party, denounced the deal and called on the prime minister to cancel it before legislation reaches Parliament.

"The deal ... is unacceptable and does not deserve to be charged to a radical political party such as Syriza, and a battling government that promised to abolish ... austerity," Lafazanis said in a statement on his ministry website. Germany, he said, treated Greece "as if it was their colony and [behaved] as brutal blackmailers and 'financial assassins.'"

Comparing the challenge facing the government to the Gordian Knot of Greek mythology that was impossible to untie, Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis was nevertheless confident that Tsipras could muster enough votes in Parliament.

“The decisions that will facilitate a return to normality will take place,” Voutsis told reporters.

Tsipras was meeting with the party's top leadership Tuesday morning for talks that were expected to last several hours. Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos was also attending the meeting to brief on the contents of the deal.

Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, who heads the government's junior coalition partner, the right-wing Independent Greeks, described the agreement and the pressure Greece was put under at the summit as an attempt to overthrow the government.

"The night before last, there was a coup. A coup in the heart of Europe," Kammenos told reporters outside Parliament. This was continuing inside Greece, he said. "They want the government to fall and to replace it with one that hasn't been voted on by the Greek people."

Kammenos said his party would continue to support the government and Tsipras, but that they would only vote on measures previously agreed to during a meeting of political leaders before the summit. It was unclear what effect this would have if all the measures needed to be passed by Parliament are submitted in a single bill.

Party spokesman Terence Quick said the Independent Greeks' 13 lawmakers would vote according to their conscience.

The government holds 162 seats in Greece's 300-member Parliament, and the bill is likely to pass as it enjoys the support of most opposition parties. But about 30 of Syriza's own lawmakers have publicly voiced objections, raising concerns over the government's stability.

One obstacle could be the parliamentary speaker, Zoe Constantopoulou, who is key to the logistics of the vote and has been one of the creditors' most ferocious critics. Tsipras could try a potentially risky move of forcing her out through a no-confidence vote, although that would eat up precious time and political capital to prepare the reform bills.

In a sign of mounting opposition to the deal, Greece's civil servants union called a public sector strike for Wednesday, the day the bill is expected to be voted on.

Since his election in January, Tsipras has faced intense pressure to backpedal on his promises to Greece's exhausted electorate, who have faced five years of harsh austerity measures that have left the economy reduced by a quarter and seen unemployment skyrocket.

If Greece's third bailout in five years goes ahead, it will provide about 85 billion euros in loans and financial support, preserving its membership in the euro, shoring up its banks and allowing some stability to return to the battered Greek economy.

Greece has other financing needs beyond its banks. On July 20, it has to repay 4.2 billion euros to the European Central Bank (ECB). It is also in arrears on 2 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund, after it missed a 456 million euro payment due Monday, on top of a roughly 1.5

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