Athens---Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Saturday a deal with EU leaders to extend the country's huge debt bailout would end hated austerity measures, but his government faced scaling back its leftist agenda.
In a national address after Greece was given a crucial four-month extension to its bailout in negotiations late Friday, Tsipras said "this deal cancels out austerity."
But the bailout extension came at the cost of concessions including a commitment to spell out reforms within two days.
The reforms would be aimed at persuading its European creditors to extend further loans. Athens received no immediate loan assistance.
Tsipras however argued that his government had foiled a plan by "blind conservative forces" in Greece and abroad to bankrupt the country at the end of the month, when its European bailout had been scheduled to expire.
At the same time, the 40-year-old prime minister warned that the "real difficulties" lie ahead. He said his government would now focus on negotiating a new reform blueprint with Greece's creditors by June.
The new leftist Greek government, which came to power last month pledging to end deeply unpopular austerity measures, had asked for six-month loan assistance until it can submit its four-year reform plans.
- Greeks 'yielded' -
"From a symbolic and therefore political point of view, the Greeks yielded on everything," Daniel Gros, director of the centre for European policy studies, told Italy's La Stampa daily.
"They can hope to receive nothing now... only to give," Gros said.
The government said it had averted threatened cuts to pensions and tax hikes, and had persuaded its European creditors to drop unrealistic budget demands.
Some Greeks on Saturday said even this was better than nothing.
"The room for negotiation was certainly limited, but this deal is in the right direction and makes us feel relieved," said civil servant Alexandros Mylonas.
"This is a very positive development," added Nikos, a pensioner who declined to give his surname.
"We could certainly do no worse than where we were before," he told AFP.
But the government's domestic rivals were not inclined to be generous.
The opposition socialists said the deal took Greece "kilometres backwards" and accused the government of engaging in "theatrics for domestic consumption".
The communist party also noted that "regardless of what it is called, the agreement is essentially a formal extension of the fiscal bailout, under strict supervision...and mainly a continuation of anti-popular reforms."
To win the hard-fought deal, Athens agreed to submit a list of economic and other reforms by Monday.
The government pledged to refrain from one-sided measures that could compromise existing fiscal targets, and had to abandon plans to use some 11 billion euros in leftover European bank support funds to help restart the Greek economy.
On Tuesday, the hated "troika" of creditors will decide whether to proceed with Friday's agreement, with the chance that the compromise could be scrapped if they are not satisfied.
"If the list of reforms is not agreed, this agreement is dead," Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis admitted after the talks.
The government had promised to spend two billion euros this year on poverty relief for thousands of families hit by five years of wage cuts and tax hikes.
Last week it presented legislation offering debt forgiveness to low-income citizens owing money to the state, but Brussels has now demanded to vet such measures beforehand.
