Greece Strikes Deal With Creditors, Avoids Chaotic Euro Exit

Greece reached a deal with its European creditors Monday, pledging stringent austerity to avoid an exit from the euro and the global financial chaos that could have followed

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (R) and Finance Minister Euclide Tsakalotos leave at the end of an Eurozone Summit over the Greek debt crisis in Brussels on July 13, 2015. Thierry Charlier/AFP/Getty Images

BRUSSELS—After grueling, often angry negotiations that tested the limits of European unity, Greece struck a preliminary rescue deal with its creditors Monday, July 13, that should avert an imminent financial catastrophe but also guarantees years more hardship and sacrifice for its people.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras flew home to sell the bailout plan to skeptical lawmakers and political allies, some of whom accused him of selling Greece out. Panos Kammenos, leader of the junior partner in Tsipras’s coalition government, denounced the deal as a German-led “coup.”

“This deal introduced many new issues ... we cannot agree with it,” he said after meeting with Tsipras.

Other Greeks rallied Monday night before Parliament in Athens, urging lawmakers to reject the new demands.

Creditors have also dangled the carrot of a possible future debt restructuring in the event of a smooth bailout.