Greek lawmakers approved their country’s draft third bailout on Friday after a almost 24-hour marathon parliamentary procedure culminated in a vote that saw the government coalition suffer significant dissent.
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These measures were met with strong opposition from Ms Konstantopoulou and a group of legislators from Syriza’s hardline Left Platform, who have threatened to split with prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
Tsipras will call a confidence vote in parliament after Greece makes a debt payment to the European Central Bank on August 20, a government official said.
The biggest rebellion within the ruling party since Tsipras came to power earlier this year will reportedly force him to seek a confidence vote in the parliament next week.
After the Greek vote, the bailout deal will also need approval from several other eurozone parliaments, including Germany’s, before any funds can be disbursed.
It was crucial that the bill passed this morning, as eurozone finance ministers are due to meet in Brussels this afternoon, where they will decide whether to approve the draft agreement.
Under the baseline scenario Greek authorities have agreed with worldwide creditors in the new bailout agreement, Greece’s economy is projected to shrink by 2.1 to 2.3 percent this year.
“The rebels insist the government should stand by the promises on which it was elected to reverse the waves of spending cuts and tax rises, which have had a devastating effect on an already weak economy over the past few years“.
Tsipras said Friday that failure to ratify the deal would enable Germany to push forward its proposal for a bridging loan, which he described as “a return to a crisis without end”.
Voting started just after 09:30 local time (06:30 GMT), more than six hours after the main debate began.
Nearly a third of his own Syriza party members voted against the bailout, even more than expected.
The bailout was approved with 222 votes in favour, 64 votes against, while 11 MPs abstained and 3 were absent, daily Kathimerini informs.
He and 12 other left-wing politicians are intending to start a rival anti-austerity movement to Syriza – but have not quit their current party outright so far.
Although the country and its global lenders and those overseeing the program – the European Commission, European Central Bank, European Stability Mechanism (ESM) with input from the worldwide Monetary Fund (IMF) -have agreed technical details, a political agreement in the euro zone by member state governments is now necessary before any aid is release.
Finland, one of the euro zone countries most skeptical about pouring yet more aid into Greece, backed the bailout on Thursday.
Germany, who was the largest single contributor to Greece’s two previous bailouts, has been the country’s harshest critic and has maintained a cautious stance.
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An analysis seen by the Reuters news agency said the creditor institutions had “serious concerns” about the sustainability of Greek public debt.
