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Summary Greece is running out of time to finalise additional budget cuts to secure a eurozone bailout.
Greeces far-right party LAOS, a junior member of the governing coalition, will not approve new austerity measures demanded by public creditors in return for a loan bailout, its leader said on Friday.We are not going to vote, party leader George Karatzaferis told a news conference, adding: Humiliation was imposed on us. I do not tolerate this. And I do not allow it, no matter how hungry I might be. He also attacked German Chancellor Angela Merkel, accusing her of placing the whole European Union under a German boot.Greece is running out of time to finalise additional budget cuts to secure a eurozone bailout worth 130 billion euros ($171 billion).It faces bankruptcy on March 20, when it must repay nearly 14.5 billion euros ($19 billion) in maturing debt, if it does not get financial assistance.A vote on the measures is scheduled to be held on Sunday.LAOS has 16 deputies in the 300-seat chamber, and although several lawmakers from other parties have also declared their opposition to the new cuts, the other two coalition parties have enough support to secure passage.But Karatzaferis stopped short of defecting from the government outright, noting that his four party members in cabinet -- a minister and three junior ministers -- would continue to serve at the discretion of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, whom he pledged to continue to support.Blasting Berlin, Karatzaferis said, Greece must not and cannot be outside the EU. But it can do without the German boot.The EU has been abolished, he added. Germany decides on behalf of Europe because it has a swollen wallet.Decisions are no longer taken in Brussels, but in a tower outside Berlin where Ms Merkel confers with satellite countries: the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, and lately, regrettably, Luxembourg.
