Greek MPs approve new prior actions to unlock further bailout loans

The MP ejections have now left Tsipras’ coalition with 153 seats in the 300-member parliament – a mere three-seat majority.

The resignation of Gabriel Sakellaridis, a former government spokesman, does not reduce Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ parliamentary majority, as he will be replaced by another member of the Syriza party.

Syriza lawmaker Stathis Panagoulis abstained from voting, while Nikos Nikolopoulos of junior coalition party Independent Greeks voted against the bill. Both men were immediately expelled from the parties.

Earlier, a prominent lawmaker in Tsipras’ left-wing Syriza party resigned his seat, saying he can no longer back government policies. Among the measures or “milestones” demanded by foreign lenders were tougher steps against mortgage holders who failed to honour loans, including seizure of homes.

Greece’s government said on Friday it expected the economy to flatline this year and shrink less than previously forecast in 2016, as it finalised a budget likely to heap more austerity on a long-suffering public.

Nikolopoulos had warned in interviews in local media that he would vote against the bill due to “catastrophic” articles, such as the one regarding the new terms on home foreclosures which protect only a small percentage of overindebted households from auctions.

The most contentious part is the clause on foreclosures, which will affect hundreds of thousands of Greek families that up to now have enjoyed nearly blanket protection from losing their primary residences.

 Mr. Panagoulis, a long-serving Syriza figure, said he was leaving the party “because I won’t accept seeing hardworking homeowners thrown into the street”. Six years into its worst economic crisis in modern times, many are predicting Greece’s worst winter yet.

Half way in the debate and in light of strong reactions against the tax on wine since Wednesday, Deputy Finance Minister, Trifon Alexiadis, announced that it was reduced from 40 to 20 cents per liter.

Addressing parliament, the social democrat Pasok leader Fofi Genimata accused the country’s first leftist administration of playing with fire.

Passage of the multibill now unlocks €2bn in aid that the government has pledged to put into a parallel programme of relief measures.