Brussels, 27/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - The three political parties in the Greek coalition government have agreed on the broad strokes of new austerity measures demanded by the country's troika of lenders, explained Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras on Thursday 27 September. He said they had agreed on the main points of the budget savings measures, bringing the total savings to more than €11.5 billion for 2013 and 2014. Stournaras was talking after a meeting of the heads of the three parties (right, socialist and moderate left) on the day after a demonstration of more than 50,000 opposed to the austerity programme. Stournaras said the government was now planning to reach agreement with the troika (EU-ECB-IMF), whose representatives will arrive in Athens on Sunday, and then with its European “partners”. Time is of the essence for agreeing on the programme because the government is planning on Monday to unveil its preliminary draft budget for 2013 at parliament, along with some of the austerity measures with the aim of having the measures voted through rapidly in order to ensure EU support at the European Council on 18 October, where Athens will lodge an official request for two years extra time to meet its budget commitments. (LC/transl.fl)