ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged his Syriza party lawmakers on Friday to approve a bill on pension reforms in a parliamentary vote on Sunday to make the country's ailing social security system viable.
"We are voting on an ambitious reform which brings the pensions system of the country onto a viable track," Tsipras said.
"The necessity to make an intervention into the pension system must be understood by all. It was a necessity borne from the need to make it viable. ... It was a one-way street, with or without an agreement," he said, referring to a multi-billion euro financial bailout Greece has signed up to with international lenders.