Greece passes unpopular package
Source: Agencies |
November 9, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE Greek parliament has narrowly passed a deeply unpopular austerity package that should ensure it gets its hands on vital bailout cash - but at a cost to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' fragile coalition government.
Lawmakers voted 153-128 for the package of spending cuts and tax increases in a ballot yesterday, hours after more than 80,000 protesters demonstrated outside on the streets of Athens. The vote means Greece remains on course to get its next loan installment, worth some 31.5 billion euros (US$40.15 billion). Without it, the government has said the country will run out of euros on November 16.
Only two - the majority conservatives and the Socialists - of the three parties in the coalition backed the 13.5 billion-euro austerity package. But there was also dissent in those ranks, with seven lawmakers expelled for failing to back the measures and an eighth saying he was leaving the Socialists to continue as an independent member of parliament.
But the government is not in imminent threat of collapse as the third party, Democratic Left, insists it will continue as a coalition member.
Greece has relied on rescue loans from the other members of the 17-country group that uses the euro and the International Monetary Fund since 2010, after it revealed its deficit was much higher than expected and lost access to international markets.
The 240 billion-euro package is released in installments, depending on Greece's progress in taming its deficit and reforming the economy. But the latest payment has been delayed for five months, due to political uncertainty in the spring that forced two national elections in as many months and subsequent delays in agreeing on the new cutbacks.
Samaras' coalition faces another test on Sunday, when parliament is to vote on the 2013 state budget. But this time all three coalition partners are set to present a united front.
Lawmakers voted 153-128 for the package of spending cuts and tax increases in a ballot yesterday, hours after more than 80,000 protesters demonstrated outside on the streets of Athens. The vote means Greece remains on course to get its next loan installment, worth some 31.5 billion euros (US$40.15 billion). Without it, the government has said the country will run out of euros on November 16.
Only two - the majority conservatives and the Socialists - of the three parties in the coalition backed the 13.5 billion-euro austerity package. But there was also dissent in those ranks, with seven lawmakers expelled for failing to back the measures and an eighth saying he was leaving the Socialists to continue as an independent member of parliament.
But the government is not in imminent threat of collapse as the third party, Democratic Left, insists it will continue as a coalition member.
Greece has relied on rescue loans from the other members of the 17-country group that uses the euro and the International Monetary Fund since 2010, after it revealed its deficit was much higher than expected and lost access to international markets.
The 240 billion-euro package is released in installments, depending on Greece's progress in taming its deficit and reforming the economy. But the latest payment has been delayed for five months, due to political uncertainty in the spring that forced two national elections in as many months and subsequent delays in agreeing on the new cutbacks.
Samaras' coalition faces another test on Sunday, when parliament is to vote on the 2013 state budget. But this time all three coalition partners are set to present a united front.
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