MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Greek ‘technocrat’ PM faces confidence motion Wednesday

PM Lucas Papademos: Greece’s only choice is to remain in the Euro zone

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said on Monday the policies tied to Athens' international bailout had worsened a recession and pushed unemployment higher, but the problem could be mitigated with reforms.

“It is a fact that the crisis and the current policy have worsened recession and unemployment,” Papademos told parliament at the start of a debate that will culminate in a confidence motion on Wednesday.

He said Greece's only choice was to remain in the Euro zone, and the country had to widen its tax base and fight rampant tax evasion, a problem identified by economists as a serious hindrance to Greece's budget performance.

However the leader of Greece's main conservative group Antonis Samaras said his New Democracy party would not vote for any new austerity measures and said the mix of policies demanded by international lenders should be changed.

“We will not vote for any new measures,” Samaras told a meeting of his own MPs.

He added that he would not sign any letter pledging a commitment to austerity measures, as has been demanded by EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, and that a verbal pledge should be sufficient.