Greece’s conservative-led coalition has survived a bid to topple it after winning a confidence vote in parliament.<br /><br /> The censure motion, which came as the so-called troika of lenders are in town, was brought by he main opposition Syriza party which wants to overturn the government’s austerity policies.<br /><br /> Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras accused the opposition of being “trapped in a dead end”. <br /><br /> “The country is moving ahead,” he said, “and it is leaving behind the era of crisis, but you keep on fighting from within your party.” <br /><br /> Syriza’s leader Alexis Tsipras responded by accusing the government of reducing some people to searching through rubbish for food.<br /><br /> “Your policies have destroyed the country. The majority of the people suffer and live in despair.” <br /><br /> Outside parliament opposition supporters demonstrated against more austerity measures.<br /><br /> The troika of EU/IMF lenders is in Athens carrying out a crucial inspection visit to check on the government’s progress in meeting its bailout targets before they approve the release of up to 5.9 billion euros in loans.<br /><br /> Prime Minister Samaras and the troika, however, disagree over how many additional savings Athens needs to hit its 2014 budget targets.<br /><br /> Sunday’s vote did in the end damage the government by reducing its majority to just four after it expelled one of its own lawmakers for voting with the opposition.<br /><br /> Our reporter Nikoletta Kritikou said:<br /><br /> “Under the shadow of tough negotiations with the troika, which are highlighting the great gap between Athens and its foreign creditors, the Greek government finally won a confidence vote. A great number of MP’s however, severely criticised the government’s policies saying their vote was simply one of tolerance.”
