ATHENS, Greece—Greece’s prime minister acknowledge Friday the reforms his government has proposed in return for a third bailout are harsh and include measures far from his party’s election pledges, but insisted they were Greece’s best chance to emerge from its financial crisis.
In a speech delivered after midnight and with strong personal tones, Alexis Tsipras sought to persuade lawmakers, including dissenters within his own left-wing Syriza party, to back the proposals and grant his finance minister the authorization to use them as a basis for negotiations with creditors over the weekend.
A vote was expected at about 3 a.m. Saturday.
Tsipras said his government had made mistakes during his six-month tenure but said he had negotiated as hard as he could.
“There is no doubt that for six months now we’ve been in a war,” he said, adding that his government had fought “difficult battles” and had lost some of them.
