Greek debt crisis: 'The dark forces of the EU have subjected Greece to a coup' - Caroline Lucas condemns austerity package

Green party MP joins hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter who use the #ThisIsACoup hashtag to protest against strict austerity measures

Green MP Caroline Lucas condemned the terms of the bailout (Getty)

Caroline Lucas has condemned the “forces of darkness” of the EU for forcing a strict austerity package on Greece, claiming Athens had been subjected to a “coup”.

The Green party MP joined hundreds of thousands of people who took to Twitter to denounce the new measures, using the hashtag #ThisIsACoup.

Eurozone leaders completed a mammoth 17-hour meeting this morning and announced they had unanimously agreed to offer a third bailout worth €86bn to Greece in return for the debt-ridden country immediately bringing in a swathe of reforms to cut spending on pensions, raise tax revenues and liberalise the labour market.

But Ms Lucas said the new measures, which must be pushed through the Greek parliament by Wednesday, would cripple the country and said the democratic will of a country had been “superseded” by the forces of the EU, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.

Writing on her website, Ms Lucas said: “The oldest democracy in the world has been subjected to a coup. Over the course of just a few days the Greek Parliament is being forced to rush through emergency legislation to cut pensions, raise taxes and privatise swathes of the economy – without any time for genuine debate. The forces of darkness – the IMF, the Eurozone and the ECB – are subjecting an already deeply impoverished country to further needless cruelty. National sovereignty has, in effect, been suspended.

“A credible solution to Greece’s woes exists: European countries should come together to discuss ways to cancel at least some of the debt. It’s been done before – when Germany’s debts were cancelled after World War Two – and it should be done again.

“These are dark days for anyone who believes in democracy. The will of a nation has been superseded in favour of relentless, economically illiterate and socially destructive austerity. It’s time that politicians here in Britain, no matter where they stand on the economics of the Greek situation, take a stand for the simple right of a nation to manage its own affairs.”