Bailout talks hold key to new Greek cabinet's future

Page last updated at 03:33 GMT, Friday, June 22, 2012 - 08:33 EST

AFP:

Residents in Athens receive free vegetables donated by farmers...

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Greek efforts to renegotiate a disputed EU-IMF bailout deal will hold the key to the future of an unusual coalition government unveiled this week following landmark elections, analysts said.

"If the government succeeds in revising the memorandum, it will have a chance of surviving," said Nikos Dimou, an author and political commentator in Athens.

"If it does not, or if it only makes cosmetic changes to the memorandum, then the opposition is very strong and they will start strikes and protests.

"They will make life very difficult for the coalition" -- an arrangement that is unusual for Greece where politics is usually more clear-cut, Dimou said.

The coalition led by Antonis Samaras and his conservative New Democracy party said in its first statement on Thursday that it would renegotiate the multi-billion euro bailout without risking Greece's eurozone membership.

It was an initial sign of the pressures the new government will face after the radical leftist anti-austerity Syriza party that ended up losing Sunday's elections still managed to garner more than a quarter of the vote.

Read the whole story: AFP