European leaders' determination to keep Greece in the euro area will be tested this week as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras struggles to secure political support for measures to assure the country's financial lifeline.

Samaras pledged yesterday that the raft of wage and pension cuts in the latest austerity package will be the last and that Greek society won't tolerate any more, according to comments made to lawmakers of his New Democracy party. The first parliamentary vote in Athens may come as early as Nov. 7.

"The Greek risk could come to a head this week," Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank AG, wrote in a Nov. 2 note. "Greece matters as a trigger of potential contagion to the much bigger economies of Italy and Spain."

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