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Greece has recently seen the worst rioting in years
Greece is braced for large protests against further budget cuts, following a 130bn-euro (£110bn; $170bn) bailout deal aimed at avoiding bankruptcy.
There are fears of more violence during the rallies called by trade unions as the public mood hardens, a BBC correspondent in Athens says.
Meanwhile the government is finalising emergency legislation demanded by international lenders.
It says Greece has avoided a nightmare scenario by agreeing to the bailout.
The country has already been through a massive austerity programme in return for an earlier bailout, and many are angry at the prospect of years more hardship.
Athens last week saw the worst rioting in years after parliament passed the deeply unpopular austerity measures.
More confrontations between protesters and police are expected on Wednesday over the measures demanded by other eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund as a condition for the rescue.
Analysis
Greeks are a resilient people, well-versed in surmounting obstacles through their history. But that resilience is being sorely tested.
The country has been living with punishing austerity for much of the past two years: unemployment has reached record heights at over 21%, the economy contracted by 7% in the last quarter of 2011.
And now, with the bailout deal approved in Brussels, the cuts are set to get deeper still.
And Greeks are growing ever more doubtful that the path ahead will lead them out of this crisis. The government is acutely aware that support for the bailout and the austerity measures is costing it dearly in the opinion polls.
"Workers in our country refuse to accept the barbarity of the tougher neo-liberal measures that have been extortionately imposed by our creditors," the GSEE private sector trade union warned earlier this week.
"And that is why they will continue and step up their struggle... to block the destruction of our society".
Under Tuesday's agreement hammered out after marathon talks in Brussels:
- Greece will undertake to reduce its debt from 160% of GDP to 120.5% by 2020
- private holders of Greek debt will take losses of 53.5% on the value of their bonds, with the real loss as much as 70%
- eurozone experts will permanently monitor Greece's economic management
- a constitutional change will give priority to debt repayments over the funding of government services
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the deal had given Greece a new opportunity, and had "avoided the nightmare scenario".
George Papandreou speaking on BBC Hardtalk: ''We will not default and we will not exit the euro''
"What we have is the clear, explicit commitment of our peers that they will support us even after the end of the programme, until Greece returns to the markets," he said.
The country has just over a week to approve a round of spending cuts of more than 3bn euros tied to the bailout.
At Tuesday's cabinet meeting, ministers discussed emergency legislation. A parliamentary vote is expected on Thursday.
The bill proposes cutting the current 751-euro minimum monthly wage by 22%, and also further cuts of pensions, reports say.
Opinion polls suggest that the two parties in the coalition, which currently dominate parliament, are facing huge losses at the next election, scheduled for April.
Continue reading the main story
What went wrong in Greece?
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- Greece's economic reforms, which led to it abandoning the drachma as its currency in favour of the euro in 2002, made it easier for the country to borrow money.
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- Greece went on a big, debt-funded spending spree, including paying for high-profile projects such as the 2004 Athens Olympics, which went well over its budget.
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- The country was hit by the downturn, which meant it had to spend more on benefits and received less in taxes. There were also doubts about the accuracy of its economic statistics.
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- Greece's economic problems meant lenders started charging higher interest rates to lend it money. Widespread tax evasion also hit the government's coffers.
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- There have been demonstrations against the government's austerity measures to deal with its debt, such as cuts to public sector pay and pensions, reduced benefits and increased taxes.
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- Eurozone leaders are worried that if Greece were to default, and even leave the euro, it would cause a major financial crisis that could spread to much bigger economies such as Italy and Spain.
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- In 2010, the EU, IMF and ECB agreed a bailout worth 110bn euros (�92bn; $145bn) for Greece. Prime Minister George Papandreou quit the following year while negotiating its follow-up.
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- Lucas Papademos, who succeeded Mr Papandreou, has negotiated a second bailout of 130bn euros, plus a debt writedown of 107bn euros. The price: increased austerity and eurozone monitoring.
Parties on the far left and far right, which are set to make big gains, are opposed to the bailout deal.
The head of the opposition Communist party has vowed to oppose new cuts.
"We insist on daily struggle to thwart the measures and this struggle cannot be a defensive one," said Aleka Papariga.
Eurozone leaders hailed the deal as a triumph, and said it had saved Greece from going bankrupt.
Former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told the BBC's Hardtalk programme that Greece had made major sacrifices and deserved more respect from international analysts and financial markets.
"We have made major sacrifices in Greece," he said.
22 Feb, 2012
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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-europe-17123199
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