Greece's prime minister warned Friday that the country was at a critical juncture ahead of an election that could determine its future in the eurozone, as European leaders said the terms of a rescue deal were non-negotiable. Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos spoke of "dangerous inertia" in state operations and "critical" decisions lying ahead after a two-month hiatus in pledged reforms as the country staged back-to-back electoral campaigns.
Greece is readying for its second election in six weeks with all the top candidates now calling for various degrees of renegotiation of a bailout deal despite warnings that Greece must toe the line or leave the euro.
"Never has the Greek people had such clear dilemmas," he said on Friday.
"The euro or the drachma...jobs or mass unemployment...security or fear?" Antonis Samaras, head of the New Democracy conservatives and a possible winner on Sunday, told his party's closing rally in Athens on Friday.
"This battle is like no other," Samaras said.
Sunday's vote will be watched around the world amid concern over the shockwaves that a Greek euro exit would send through the global economy, and will impact on talks by European leaders divided on how to resolve the debt crisis.
The New Democracy conservatives and Syriza radical leftists have been running neck-and-neck in the polls for the election which was triggered by an inconclusive vote on May 6 after which no party could form a governing coalition.
Samaras, 61, presents himself as the guarantor for Greece's membership in the eurozone although he says he wants to renegotiate the "memorandum" -- the bailout deal that has imposed harsh austerity conditions.
He says he could lead a coalition of other centre-right parties and the Socialist Pasok party, which would broadly support the bailout deal.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has called for the deal to be torn up although he has moderated his message in recent days and is now also calling for renegotiation.
Samaras "has guaranteed (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel's Europe of the past. We guarantee the Europe of the future", he told thousands of supporters at his final campaign rally as they chanted: "The hour of the left has arrived!"
Tsipras has given himself 10 days after the vote to renegotiate the bailout in time for the European summit in Brussels on June 28 and 29.
In a front-page call headlined in Greek, the German edition of the Financial Times on Friday urged voters to "Resist the demagogue (Tsipras)".
Syriza condemned the editorial, with Tsipras on Friday likening it to flyers thrown by Nazi airplanes over occupied Greece during World War II.
"Mercy Ms Merkel!" Tsipras told a crowd in Thessaloniki.
"Withdraw your marionettes and come down to the campaign yourself," he said.
Even New Democracy reacted angrily to the endorsement from a newspaper in a country that is widely reviled in Greece as it is seen as the main force behind the austerity.
"Greeks are a proud people who know how to vote. Take your suggestions elsewhere," the conservative party said.
European leaders and in particular Merkel have said there is no chance of a renegotiation but officials privately say there is some wiggle room and a willingness to meet Greece's needs to relaunch its economy after five years of recession.
"The terms of the compromise, which is to be signed between now and September, could add another two years on the target for fiscal consolidation," a former adviser to Papademos told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Greece's creditors are taking no chances and have suspended the latest 2.6-billion-euro tranche of bailout until after the election amid concern in some quarters of prolonged political deadlock in Athens.
"If we break with our (EU) peers, they would force us to leave the euro, we would not be able to import anything, we would have to capitulate at much worse terms to secure our basic needs, it would be 10 times worse," Samaras warned on Friday.
In return for the cuts, Greece has been given an international credit lifeline -- first for 110 billion euros in May 2010 and then for 130 billion euros earlier this year plus a 107-billion-euro private debt write-off.
Scenarios on how Greece could exit the euro -- a notion that is rejected by 80 percent of Greeks -- have multiplied in recent weeks.
The latest one by Deutsche Bank said the critical period when Greece runs out of money could come "at the end of June or beginning of July".
The finance ministry has reportedly admitted that Greece only has money left to pay salaries and pensions until late July, bankers warn of a rise in deposit withdrawals, and state revenue is officially 666 million euros ($836 million) short of a targeted 18.8 billion euros for the first five months of the year.
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