Samaras calls for unity to get through crisis

As a crucial austerity deal with Greece’s foreign creditors hangs in the balance amid objections from the government’s junior coalition partner, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras indicated on Friday that his administration would not sell the debt-wracked country out.

“Greece won’t bargain away its freedom,» Samaras said during a speech in Thessaloniki marking the celebration of the northern port’s liberation from Ottoman rule.

The premier said the time had come for Greece to look forward and seek all necessary cooperations to ensure «we shake off the shackles of underdevelopment and of excessive debt which is leading us to humiliation.»

Samaras also stressed the need for Greeks to have faith in their abilities and to display unity and patriotism as «only division can break us.»

“In a few years Greece will be a much better place as long as we remain united and determined and that depends on us,» the premier said.