Minister threatens early elections if debt deal is not reached

Greece's government may call early elections if the country's international lenders do not soften their terms for a cash-for-reforms deal, Deputy Social Security Minister Dimitris Stratoulis said on Friday.

"The lenders want to impose hard measures. If they do not back down from this package of blackmail, the government ... will have to seek alternative solutions - elections," he said.

Stratoulis is closer to the leftist faction of the ruling Syriza party, and it was not clear if the statement represented a wider view within the party. But it underlined the deep anger at the proposal from lenders and a growing sense that the party will seek alternatives to avoid accepting the plan.