[Straits Times] GREEK politicians voted on Wednesday for a massive new austerity package demanded by international creditors, amid violent festivities between protesters and police firing tear gas outside the parliament.An AFP count gave Prime Minister George Papandreou's government the 151 votes it needed to push through measures to save 28.4 billion euros (S$50.4 billion) by 2015, and so unlock emergency finance from the EU and the IMF.
The yes vote was 'the only way to buy time and start the great changes this country needs,' Mr Papandreou said in the moments before voting, pledging to do 'everything to avoid the collapse of this country,' with the plans deemed essential to prevent default on its 350-billion-euro debt mountain.
Mr Papandreou's Socialists lost one vote among their 155 politicians, as expected, but also won backing from one opposition MP. A second vote on the detail behind the measures has still to be held on Thursday.
| And then, apparently, there's to be a second round of budget cutting in September or so. It might help if they figured out how to actually collect taxes... |
The plan is a condition for 12 billion euros of emergency loans needed by mid-July from stressed euro zone partners and the International Monetary Fund, that could now be unlocked by euro zone finance ministers as early as their next meeting on Sunday.