by Our Foreign Desk

GREEK Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faced open revolt from some of his own ministers yesterday as he sought support for his surrender to European creditors at the weekend.

The government has to pass a raft of humiliating measures through parliament by tonight, including consumer tax increases and increased pension contributions, before it can even be accepted into negotiations on a third banking bailout worth as much as €85 billion (£60bn).

The deal tramples on practically all of Mr Tsipras’s pre-election promises to reject any more of the austerity imposed for five years on the Greek people. 

The prime minister is expected to have the numbers in parliament to pass the measures tonight, since he will have the support of most opposition parties. 

But these parties — notably the conservative New Democracy and the nominally social-democratic Pasok — are precisely the formations that imposed the higher taxes and cuts in living standards condemned by Syriza.

About 30 Syriza MPs have voiced public objections about the imposed deal but they may not all carry their opposition to a vote.

The political survival of Mr Tsipras’s government is in danger if large numbers of Syriza MPs resign their seats or openly vote against the Bill.

Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis denounced the deal and called on the prime minister to cancel it before legislation reaches parliament.

He posted a statement on his ministry website saying that the deal “is unacceptable and does not deserve to be charged to a radical political party such as Syriza and a battling government that promised to abolish ... austerity.” 

Mr Lafazanis accused Germany of treating Greece “as if it was their colony and (behaving) as brutal blackmailers and financial assassins.”

Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, who leads the government’s junior coalition partner, the right-wing Independent Greeks, described the agreement and the pressure Greece faced at the summit as an attempt to overthrow the government.

“The night before last there was a coup. A coup in the heart of Europe,” he told reporters. 

“They want the government to fall and to replace it with one that hasn’t been voted on by the Greek people.”