by James Tweedie

GREEK PM Alexis Tsipras yesterday assured his party he had rejected creditors’ austerity demands, as he sought support for a deal from opposition leaders.

Mr Tsipras told MPs from his Syriza party that he had refused demands from the International Monetary Fund and others to impose new austerity measures worth €1.8 billion (£1.3bn).

Speaking in parliament, he accused lenders of insisting on a “failed programme” after they demanded further cuts in pensions. The prime minister said that pensioners had already been “brought to their knees.”

“It appears this is a show of strength aimed at killing any effort to counter austerity. It’s an issue that does not only concern Greece but all the peoples of Europe,” he said.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis had already said he would not present any new compromises at Thursday’s meeting of the eurozone’s 19 finance ministers.

But in an apparent indication of distrust in the left of Syriza, Mr Tsipras met with the leaders of the centrist Potami and social-democratic Pasok parties — which together hold 30 parliamentary seats — to seek support for a bailout deal.

Potami leader Stavros Theodorakis renewed a pledge to vote for any deal reached by the government and creditors.

Fofi Gennimata, the newly elected leader of Pasok, urged Tsipras to form a cross-party team of bailout negotiators — a move she claimed would help convince creditors that Greece was committed to long-term reforms.

In a statement dated Monday, Communist Party of Greece general secretary Dimitris Koutsoumpas dismissed “illusions” that anti-austerity policies could be implemented while Greece remained in the EU.

Mr Koutsoumpas said: “Today the deceptions that Syriza addressed to the Greek people before the elections, when it promised that it could effectively negotiate for the interests of the people inside the predatory alliance, are becoming more obvious.”

He condemned “the blackmail and climate of intimidation” used by creditors to pressure Greece into accepting further austerity cuts.

He called for “disengagement from the EU, unilateral cancellation of the debt, nationalisation of the monopolies, with the people truly holding the reins of power.”