Greek MP In Austerity Vote Rebellion Warning

An MP from Greece's ruling party has told Sky News he intends to vote against the government's latest set of austerity measures unless concessions are made.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has told MPs another round of spending cuts and tax rise, coupled with the privatisation of a number of state-owned assets, is the only way for the country to avoid bankruptcy.

His government won a vote of confidence in last week, but has only 155 of the 300 seat in parliament.

The bill is due to be voted on by MPs on Wednesday and the European Union and the International Monetary Fund are threatening to withhold 12bn euros of emergency funding if it is voted down.

Without the loan Greece will default on its debts, as it is unable to borrow money on the financial markets at anything other than punitive rates.

Alexandros Athanasiadis has been a member of the ruling socialist party since 1975. He is unhappy with the government's plans to raise 50bn euros by selling off so many state-owned assets.

He has warned the Prime Minister that unless plans to privatise PPC (an energy company which generates just over half of the electricity Greece consumes) and the Athens Water and Sewage Treatment Company are shelved, he will vote against his party in parliament.

"The Europeans are blackmailing us," he told Sky News .

"I don't accept it. I will not accept our country selling its jewellery, it's silverware simple to meet Europe's demands. There are other ways of doing this."

Whatever the outcome of the vote on Wednesday, the consensus is that it will do little more than buy Greece time.

It is felt that at some point the Greek government will be forced to acknowledge it cannot repay what it has borrowed - prompting the question as to who pays.

On Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested his country's banks would be willing to help Greece by giving it 30 years to repay.

Such a plan would give Greece more time to find the money, but would not reduce the overall size of the national debt.