Europe and Greece are racing to come to an agreement and avoid a catastrophic Greek exit from the eurozone, after talks ended bitterly yesterday with both sides digging into their positions.
"We will not accept psychological blackmail," Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a speech to parliament as he named former conservative minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos as his party's candidate for president.
Tsipras is also going ahead with reform measures that flout Greece's bailout obligations, calling for parliament to vote on a series of anti-austerity reform bills at the end of the week.
"There was a completely unanimous position of the Eurogroup on the Greek issue," said influential German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a day after the debt talks collapsed.
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The tense meeting ended abruptly yesterday with Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who is also Dutch finance minister, giving Greece just 48 hours to request an extension to the bailout.
The Tsipras government has bitterly rejected the extension demand and is seeking a new arrangement that would ease up on the harsh austerity it says has damaged the Greek economy.
"It's the first time a government is standing with dignity in Europe," said pensioner Thomas Argiros on the iconic Syntagma square in Athens.
Yesterday's meeting was the second time in a week that talks among eurozone ministers ended in acrimony amid accusations by Greece that Dijsselbloem, backed by Germany, had torpedoed deliberations with "absurd" demands.
Despite the wall of opposition, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the different sides would find agreement in time to set up a new meeting for Friday.