Kammenos backs bailout proposal with ‘heavy heart’

Greece's junior coalition party will vote "with a heavy heart" to endorse government proposals submitted to the country's creditors in a race to reach a cash-for-reforms deal, its leader said on Saturday.

"We are going against what our conscience dictates, we are going against our public mandate … with a heavy heart we will vote to not allow others to return on Monday with the same measures," Panos Kammenos, head of the right-wing Independent Greeks party, told parliament.

The country's leftist-led government is seeking lawmakers' approval to negotiate a series of tax hikes and spending cuts and unlock 53.5 billion euros (38 billion pounds) in aid from creditors to avert bankruptcy and remain with the euro zone.

[Reuters]