Greece and its creditors last week struck a bailout deal aimed at preventing Athens from crashing out of the eurozone as it struggles to pay its enormous debts.
Advertisement
MPs voted 230-63 in favour of the measures, following a whirlwind debate that ended at 4am local time.
Of the ruling SYRIZA party’s 149 members, 31 voted against the reforms and five abstained.
Talks must be completed by Aug. 12, so that euro-area parliaments can approve the disbursement of bailout funds to Greece by Aug. 18, according to the government official.
“Most of the party’s hard-liners continued to rail against what they said was the creditors” “blackmail’ and voted no, making it likely that new elections would be held in the fall”, reported by The New York Times.
“We have stability here: Reliable taxation, sound legislation and a positive environment”, said Ioannis Politis, manager of Greek hygiene products company Septona, which established a plant in the northern Bulgarian city of Ruse 10 years ago.
Greece will “fully normalize working methods with the Institutions, including the necessary work on the ground in Athens, to improve program implementation and monitoring”, as stated by the summit agreement Tsipras signed up to.
Tsipras has been able to maintain high approval ratings despite the fact that he was forced to back down on his anti-austerity campaign promises in order to unlock desperately needed EU funding.
Greek MPs approve bill for banking, judicial reforms – vital for starting bailout talks. Minor violence marred the end of the protest when a few teenagers threw petrol bombs at riot police, but no injuries or arrests were reported.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, chairman of the euro zone’s finance ministers, said the negotiations would take four weeks, although he acknowledged that “some call me an optimist”. The package is missing a provision that his creditors say is key to Greece getting the cash it needs to stay solvent: a tax hike on farmers.
On Wednesday, the European Central Bank provided a new vital cash injection to Greece’s battered banks.
The downturn worsened after the late-June decision by the Greek government to impose a series of strict controls on the free flow of money, with a paltry 60-euro ($66) a day limit on daily withdrawals from ATMs. It almost crashed out of the eurozone this month, after relations between Athens and its creditors hit rock-bottom, and was only saved by a last-minute U-turn from Tsipras.
Government spokeswoman Gerovassili previously said the administration had “no intention” of calling early polls, and Tsipras told parliament on Thursday that he would keep fighting for Greece’s best interests, adding he would not “voluntarily abandon” the job. Now they’re demanding more cuts and taxes ahead of a third bailout, which has angered many Greeks.
The Washington-based lender of last resort typically sends a team of economists, led by a mission chief, to assess a borrowing country’s economic health and negotiate reforms.
An increase in the number of dissenters would have left Tsipras politically hamstrung.
Advertisement
Thursday’s vote centred on structural issues including reforms to the judiciary, measures to protect savers’ bank deposits up to €100,000, and rules to force shareholders and creditors, rather than taxpayers, to bear the costs of a bank failure.
