Florina MP Giorgos Lianis on Tuesday has tendered his resignation as a member of Pasok's central committee. Lianis is keeping his parliament seat and will continue to serve as an independent, leaving the ruling Pasok party with 155 MPs.

In his resignation letter addressed to the Speaker of the Parliament and to Prime Minister George Papandreou, Lianis stresses that he does not believe anymore in the government's economic policy and that "we [the government] have failed and we are forced to hide the truth from the people".

He goes on to critisise the memorandum and the medium-term fiscal programme.

Commenting on the public anger over the austerity measures on the Alter television channel late last year, Lianis had declared his intention to leave politics in order to be able to safely "walk the streets".

Lianis was born in 1942 in Amyntaio, Florina prefecture, in the northwest of Greece. He has worked as a journalist on a number of well-known Greek newspapers as well as on television and radio, most notably on the high-profile TV investigative programme "Reporters", aired on the public network ERT.

He was first elected to parliament on Pasok's ticket in 1989 and he has served as deputy culture minister from 1993 to 1996.

Earlier on Tuesday, Pasok MP for Kozani Alekos Athanasiadis in a radio interview said that he would vote against the medium-term programme.

"I will not vote for the medium-term programme and I assume my responsibilities," Athanasiadis said.

The government on Thursday tabled in parliament a medium-term fiscal strategy framework for the economy envisaging a new round of severe austerity measures designed to bring in overall revenues of 28.259 billion euros by 2015, as well as a 50 billion euros privatisation programme. The programme will be put to vote in the 300-member unicameral parliament on June 28.

Prime minister George Papandreou is to meet with the President of the republic, Karolos Papoulias, on Wednesday noon. While the meeting's agenda is as of yet unknown, according to sources, Papandreou will discuss the possibility of a coalition government or snap elections.