AFP

ATHENS GREECE’S government looked on the verge of implosion on Tuesday ahead of a confidence vote this week, as one socialist deputy defected and another called for early elections in response to plans for a referendum on the EU debt rescue. Stocks in Athens plunged 7.06 percent and an emergency cabinet meeting was called for 1600 GMT with reports saying even a ministerial walkout was possible in the wake of mounting protests against the government’s austerity policies.

Adding to the confusion and speculation, Greece’s foreign minister cancelled meetings with three foreign ambassadors while Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was hospitalised with an inflamed appendix.

The semi-state Athens News Agency said Venizelos held a flurry of phone calls with European and IMF officials to brief them on developments, including his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble, EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn and IMF European deputy director Poul Thomsen.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Monday called for a referendum in a bid to secure approval of his disputed economic policies without early elections.

But the gambit backfired when a former deputy minister defected, reducing the ruling party’s majority in the 300-seat parliament to 152 deputies.

Milena Apostolaki said she would keep her seat to fight against the referendum and said the government was failing to meet its fiscal targets.

“I have an obligation to resist this erroneous political choice that divides the nation,” she said in a statement.

Moments later, the head of parliament’s economic affairs committee Vasso Papandreou called for an early ballot and a temporary unity government to “safeguard” the EU deal agreed last week to slash Greece’s huge debt by nearly a third.