Greece adopts more painful reforms
Tsipras wins austerity vote after snap poll
ATHENS: Greece’s parliament narrowly adopted further reforms demanded by the country’s international creditors in return for further bailout funds. A majority of 154 lawmakers, out of a total of 300 deputies in the singlechamber parliament, backed the sweeping bill, which provides for further tax hikes and pension cuts.
The entire opposition, from the far left communists to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party voted against the legislation as a whole, even though some of their members had approved specific articles.
The vote was only narrowly carried by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s leftist Syriza party and its coalition partner, the nationalist Independent Greeks (Anel), after a stormy debate.
Conservative leader Vangelis Meimarakis accused the government of clobbering the country with taxes that he said would prolong a recession. Tsipras retorted that the reforms were “not new”. “You already knew them when you voted in favor of the July 13 (debt) accord” with the European Union, he replied.
The deal committed Athens to more tax hikes and public spending cuts in return for a three-year, 86-billion-euro ($96-billion) EU bailout-its third since 2010 — which prevented it crashing out of the euro-zone. Tsipras, who came to power in January on an anti-austerity platform but later relented to creditors’ demands for further belt-tightening, has argued that the quickest way for Greece to win back control over its finances is to implement the terms of the rescue deal.
Several thousand people demonstrated Friday evening in central Athens against the adoption of the bill. The EU and IMF had made the payment of another tranche of loans worth 2 million euros conditional on its adoption.
New measures
Greece’s parliament has approved a new round of austerity measures - the first major test for leftwing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras after snap general elections last month, triggered by dissent over Greece’s latest bailout deal. Lawmakers early Saturday voted 154-140 in favor of the bill required for a 2 billion-euro ($2.3 billion) loan installment. It is part of Greece’s third major bailout agreement with euro-zone lenders, worth 86 billion euros ($98 billion) over three years. “There are no new measures here. There are difficult measures that we all knew about,” Tsipras said. That July bailout deal saw Tsipras abandon a pledge to bring an end to austerity and alienated a large section of his radical left Syriza party. The split forced him to call an early election held on Sept. 20. Syriza came out on top and was able to return to government with the small rightwing Independent Greeks. Late Friday, several thousand protesters, many from a Communist backed labor union, joined a peaceful antiausterity rally outside parliament before the vote. Several prominent politicians who were former Tsipras allies joined the protest. “We can’t accept a new crime at the people’s expense. They’re trying to destroy the welfare state. Everyone must fight it,” protester Eleni Menegaki said. The new cost-cutting measures include penalizing early retirement and expanding a widely hated property tax.
Tsipras’ Cabinet is now racing to overhaul its troubled pension system and impose a raft of new cutbacks. The measures are required before crucial funds can be injected into the country’s ailing banks. The government also wants relief from its debt, which is set to exceed 190 percent of
Greece’s annual national income next year. Eurozone lenders have promised discussions but only if certain economic measures are met. The cost of the austerity measures, alongside with the ongoing controls on money transfers in the country, are expected to keep Greece in recession over the next two years and unemployment above 25 percent. Tsipras faced little dissent from his party or right-wing coalition partners during a parliamentary debate on the bill that started at committee level Tuesday. All six opposition parties voted against the bill. —AP