Greece's new prime minister Lucas Papademos will seek to take advantage of a rare political truce tomorrow to push through austerity and radical reform aimed at restoring the country's tattered credibility and staving off bankruptcy.
After Greece's two biggest parties put aside a bitter dispute to give him the job last week, Papademos will launch a parliamentary debate tomorrow evening that will culminate in a Wednesday confidence vote in his cabinet.
He will then attend the Eurogroup meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels on Thursday, state television reported, where he will be expected to outline the country's draft budget for next year before seeking its debate in parliament as early as Friday.
Increasing the pressure will be inspectors from the "troika" of the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Union who begin arriving in Athens tomorrow.
"It will most likely be a short visit to get in touch with the new government," a source close to the troika told Reuters. "A larger mission, which will examine policies more thoroughly, is expected to come in December."
Mr Papademos succeeds George Papandreou, whose proposal to hold a referendum on the country's bailout terms prompted EU leaders to raise the threat of a Greek exit from the currency bloc.
With both Mr Papandreou's Socialist party and its rival, the conservative former opposition New Democracy party in the coalition, Mr Papademos is expected to easily clear the confidence hurdle.
But all eyes will be on the position of New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, who has given only tepid backing to the unity government and Greece's second bailout worth €130 billion.
EU monetary affairs chief Olli Rehn has warned the EU and IMF will not release 8 billion euros of loans Greece needs by mid-December without written assurances from all parties that they will back the measures, but Samaras has said he will sign no pledge under external pressure.
Greece must secure the tranche by mid December to finance bond payments of 8.645 billion euros at the end of the year, according to Reuters data.
Reuters