Associated Press

Associated Press

BRUSSELS

After grueling, often angry negotiations that tested the limits of European unity, Greece struck a preliminary rescue deal with its creditors Monday that should avert an imminent financial catastrophe but also guarantees years more hardship and sacrifice for its people.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras flew home to sell the bailout plan to skeptical lawmakers and political allies, some of whom accused him of selling Greece out. Panos Kammenos, leader of the junior partner in Tsipras’ coalition government, denounced the deal as a German-led “coup.”

“This deal introduced many new issues. ... We cannot agree with it,” he said after meeting with Tsipras.

Other Greeks rallied Monday night before Parliament in Athens, urging lawmakers to reject the new demands.

To close the deal with his partners in the euro currency, Tsipras had to consent to a raft of austerity measures, including sales-tax hikes and pension and labor reforms – measures he had campaigned vociferously against over the past five years of Greece’s financial crisis.

The result of marathon negotiations emerged Monday: about $95.1 billion in loans and financial support for Greece over three years that will preserve its membership in the euro, shore up its banks and allow a modicum of stability to return to the battered Greek economy.

“We managed to avoid the most extreme measures,” Tsipras said.

But in many cases, ordinary Greeks now face tougher measures than those they voted down in a nationwide referendum a little over a week ago.