Athens seeks to clear final hurdle

Multi-bill heads to Parliament as government eyes completion of third review

The government will seek to clear the final hurdle to wrapping up the third review of Greece’s third bailout when a multi-bill including the tough prior actions it must implement is submitted in Parliament today.

The vote will be held on Friday night after three days of debate which will serve as a last chance for lawmakers of ruling SYRIZA to raise objections and ask for the bill to be tweaked.

To this end, the party’s parliamentary group will convene this afternoon and Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos will seek to sweeten the pill for concerned party lawmakers who fear that the government has betrayed its principles. He is expected to make the case that there is no other course of action that will lead to the conclusion of the review, paving the way for Greece’s exit from the bailout program in the summer. MPs are mostly concerned about auctions of foreclosed properties and new regulations concerning labor strikes. With regard to the former, the government argues that the auctions must go ahead to avert a recapitalization of banks. The government has insisted that working class homes are sufficiently protected. Despite the objections, the government is confident the bill will be voted through without incident. Meanwhile Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras claimed yesterday that his government “has not imposed even one euro more in measures.” The remark drew a scathing response from New Democracy, which said the new budget includes 1.9 billion euros in new measures.