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Greek PM seeks deal with opposition to scrap referendum

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Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou softened his stance on the bailout referendum on Thursday, saying that the vote could be cancelled if the opposition backed the new European aid plan for Greece in parliament, Western media reported.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou softened his stance on the bailout referendum on Thursday, saying that the vote could be cancelled if the opposition backed the new European aid plan for Greece in parliament, local media reported.

"Even if we don’t go to a referendum, which was never a purpose in itself, I'm glad that all this discussion has at least brought a lot of people back to their senses,” Greece’s MEGA TV quoted Papandreou as saying during an emergency meeting with his ministers.

“If there was a consensus, there would be no need for a referendum,” he said, adding: “I will talk to [opposition leader Antonis] Samaras so that we examine the next steps on the basis of a wider consensus.”

Papandreou’s surprise decision to hold the referendum to seek the national approval of new austerity measures in exchange for the new 130-billion-euro European aid package has put the country’s government on the brink of collapse. European leaders have threatened that Greece may be expelled from the currency block should the new plan to save the country’s crippling economy is rejected in the popular vote.

Papandreou said during Thursday’s Cabinet meeting that Greece membership in the European Union was not under question and that the new bailout agreement with the EU was the only way out of the debt crisis, Greek television reported.

Earlier on Thursday, Papndreou agreed to discuss the creation of a coalition government with the opposition that would accept the new anti-crisis plan for Greece.

 

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