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The austerity plan was adopted with 155 votes

29 June 2011 / 16:06:11  GRReporter
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The Parliament approved the austerity plan with 155 votes. It brings a new set of austerity measures for the local economy in the next four years, which are based mainly on revenues from high and widely unpopular taxes. The vote was dramatic for all MPs and Greece was not certain to the last minute whether the bill will pass.

The green lawmaker Panagiotis Kouroublis voted against the austerity plan, saying in Parliament: "With a deep commitment to the moment I can not accept the European Union blackmailing." Kouroublis said those who manage this crisis are responsible for the present situation, not the lawmakers. This is his reason not to support the austerity program, on which the further lending to Greece from the International Monetary Fund and the European countries depends. "Patriotism is the expression of those politicians who dare collide with the interests of those who ravage the state." According to some information, Panagiotis Kouroublis will be removed from the PASOK parliamentary group as he did not support the Prime Minister George Papandreou.

Elsa Papadimitriou from the opposition New Democracy decided to support the plan of the ruling Socialists and thus covered the losses from the green negative vote of Kouroublis. It has also become clear that the right MP separated herself from the party led by Andonis Samaras, because according to her, the historical importance of the current developments in Greece leave no room for narrow partisan machinations.

The PASOK member Vasso Papandreou voted in favour of the austerity measures despite her objection to the new higher taxes. Vasso Papandrfeu expressed her sharp disagreement with the government policy immediately after the announcement of the new restrictive measures. Ultimately, she supported the bill, explaining that she preferred the lesser of two evils - the heavy steps and uncertain prospects for renegotiating the conditions of the bailout to the immediate collapse of the country.

The MP from Kozani, Alekos Athanasiadis also voted "for" the austerity plan in the last time, although he announced the past week that he does not intend to support it. Athanasiadis’ constituency is the town of Kozani, where the headquarters of the Greek electricity company DEI is situated. He opposed the privatization of 17% of the state electricity company, which seriously exacerbated the atmosphere in the PASOK parliamentary group. It was not clear how Athanasiadis would vote until the last second but he finally stood up and said that he understood the importance of the situation and would support the austerity measures.

Goergios Karatzaferis from the right wing LAOS voted against the plan, although he supported the Memorandum in 2010. He insists on drawing up an emergency government with the participation of all parties, otherwise any fiscal program will fail.

The leader of Democratic Alliance, Dora Bakoyannis "abstained". "This is my vote because I would like to make a clear distinction between a policy, which obviously can not succeed and the populism of the opposition, which does not help and support the country at this difficult time," justified her vote the former member of New Democracy, who founded her own party last year.

Her brother Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who did not follow her in the Democratic Alliance and remained in the ranks of the New Democracy, voted "against" the mid-term plan. This was the vote of all other blue members, excluding Elsa Papadimitriou, who absented herself. The line that Antonis Samaras drew in the opposition party still at the outset is "Against" the austerity plan. The main reason was that he could not give a vote of trust in a program that is fundamentally wrong. PASOK and New Democracy are unanimous in many of the underlying changes such as the privatization and the cuts in the state structure. However, Samaras did not like the tax policy items in the austerity plan and he refused to accept the law as a whole.

Tags: PoliticsSocietyAusterity planCrisisGreeceVote
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