Third Greek MP resigns from ruling party amid austerity package crisis

Three Greek MPs have quit the ruling Socialist Party (Pasok) amid protests at a second austerity package designed to pay back the country’s debt. The parliamentary party was set to have a crisis meeting on Thursday afternoon after Prime Minister George Papandreou failed to form a coalition government.

Reuters/John Kolesidis

The latest Pasok MP to go was Ektorasa Nassiokis, who announced that he would resign from the party’s parliamentary group Thursday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday urged European Union member states to “show a spirit of responsibility and an understanding of the need for compromise” to protect the euro in the face of the Greek crisis.

“This is the least I can do to reverse today’s condition of impasse, for the salvation of the country,” he told fellow MPs.

Nassiokis has not resigned his seat, but former deputy minister George Floridis did earlier in the day, accusing his party and the opposition New Democracy (ND)of putting party interest before that of the nation during the debt crisis.

Another MP, George Lianis, declared himself an independent on Tuesday.

With Floridis’s seat passing to another Pasok member, the government’s majority is reduced to four.

On the day after a general strike and street protests at the austerity plan, Pasok MPs held an emergency meeting Thursday afternoon, amid rumours that another 10 to a dozen MPs could quit.

Papandreou is preparing a reshuffle after failing to form a coalition with ND.