Greece passes an austerity plan worth €28 bn with 155 votes for vs 138 against

The Greek Parliament approved the 5-year plan for budget cuts worth €28 bn by 155 votes for and 138 against, Reuters reported. The outcome is a relief for Prime Minister George Papandreou that he will receive support during the next vote as well when a law specifying the measures to be implemented for the plan’s realisation should be approved.

The European Union and the International Monetary Fund insisted that Greece should adopt the two laws before receiving the following tranche of €12 bn from the total rescue package of €110 bn which the country needs in July in order not to default.

The vote overshadowed by the ongoing 48-hour nationwide strike became the target of protests outside of the Parliament’s building, where the police used tear gas against the protesters.
Before the vote, PM Papandreou appealed to the MPs to approve the plan by consensus stating that this was the only way to raise Greece on its feet, BBC reported. “We have to do everything necessary to avoid the collapse of the country,” Papandreou said just before the vote. The Governor of Central Bank of Greece Georgios Provopoulos said that a negative vote would be “suicidal” for the country.

The European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn warned on Tuesday that there would be no “Plan B” for Greece it did not pass the law. But behind the scenes, EU officials told Reuters that discussions were being held for weeks in Brussels mulling how to give Greece sufficient money in order to “come to the surface”, regardless of the vote. The aim is to prevent the instability on financial markets from spreading to other weak economies in the Eurozone, such as Ireland, Portugal, Spain and to the European banking system as a whole. “We cannot afford for Greece to fall in the abyss,” said the source.

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