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BloombergOct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won a preliminary vote on a new round of austerity measures, sending a signal to euro-area leaders that Greece will hold to its bailout program amid social unrest.
Papandreou secured the support of 154 lawmakers in the 300- seat parliament in Athens today, setting up a final vote on the bill tomorrow. The package, the second in four months, comprises new tax rises, cuts to pensions and wages and plans to dismiss 30,000 state workers, plus a provision to break the collective pay-bargaining power of Greek unions.
“The issue is how to avoid default and in my view it is absolutely doable,” Stefanos Manos, a former Greek finance minister, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “But it requires some very tough decisions right away.”
The measures are needed to help Papandreou’s government meet budget targets that are a precondition for more outside aid and any reduction in Greece’s debt load to be discussed by European leaders at an Oct. 23 summit. Passage of the package risks further enraging workers and unions preparing for a second day of protests that have closed government offices, hospitals and schools and led to clashes with police in central Athens.
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