The Greek parliament has voted in favour of tough austerity reforms in a bid to save the country from bankruptcy, despite opposition from government politicians.
The vote took place early on Thursday morning after a lengthy and at times fiery debate about how a new bailout package would impact on the country.
Prior to the vote, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made a final appeal for support of the tough bailout measures imposed by European partners this week, telling legislators there was no alternative, even though he disagreed with the measures.
We don’t believe in it, but we are forced to adopt it,” Tsipras said.
The measures had to be approved by parliament before European partners would agree to open talks on a new multibillion euro bailout.
Earlier, riot police used pepper spray and tear gas on Wednesday night to fight back youths who were hurling Molotov cocktails and rocks at police during an anti-austerity protest in Athens.
Police said about 12,500 people were at the rally at Syntagma Square.
The clashes broke out just as lawmakers were starting to debate the austerity bill, which includes consumer tax increases and pension reforms.
Tsipras, has faced strident opposition to the bill from his own radical left Syriza party, but says it is the best possible deal he could get to prevent Greece from being forced out of Europe’s joint euro currency.
Earlier on Wednesday, however, his former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told parliament that Greece’s rescue deal was like the Versailles treaty, which forced crushing reparations on Germany after World War One and led to the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Varoufakis voted against the austerity bill on Thursday morning.
Up to 40 Syriza lawmakers had been expected to vote against the deal, but the reforms had been expected to pass because pro-EU opposition lawmakers were expected to vote for it. – Aljazeera.
