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Greek Parliament Votes In Favor of “Prior Actions” – Protests Erupt in Athens (Live Stream)
Greek Parliament Votes In Favor of “Prior Actions” – Protests Erupt in Athens (Live Stream)
Euro-Group Deal Approved by Greek Parliament
The result of the parliamentary vote in Athens just came through, and was remarkably closely aligned with recent surveys of Greek voters. Funny enough, these surveys revealed approximately 70% approval of the dealoffered by the euro-group among the population. No doubt the fact that the insolvency of Greece’s fractionally reserved banking system was recently painfully revealed to depositors after the ECB froze ELA had something to do with this sudden surge in support. Moreover, it is always possible that a majority of Greece’s citizens actually realizes that there is no way around wide-ranging reform.
Recent polls show soaring support for Syriza in spite of Tsipras ignoring the referendum outcome (source: Keep Talking Greece)
There were 229 “Yes” votes, 64 “No” votes and 6 abstentions. Make of this what you will, but the only parties unanimously voting “No” were the Stalinist KKE and the Neo-Nazi party “Golden Dawn”. In addition, a greater number of Syriza MPs rebelled than was previously expected (apparently 38 of the 149 Syriza MPs voted “No”, roughly equivalent to the size of the party’s Marxist Bloc) . Ironically, even though Mr. Tsipras has decided to completely ignore the “No” vote returned in the referendum, support for Syriza has soared among voters as well.
As a result of the vote, there are now protests in Athens – of which you can see a live stream below:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
It Starts: Greeks Rebel Against Bailout, Risk Collapse
It Starts: Greeks Rebel Against Bailout, Risk Collapse
Greece’s union of civil servants, Adedly, called for a 24-hour strike on Wednesday, and for a series of demonstrations, the first one tonight at Syntagma Square, just below the Parliament, and another one on Wednesday evening, when Parliament is expected to vote on the new, even tougher, and immensely hated bailout package.
The union for local government employees, Poe-Ota, also called for a 24-hour strike on Wednesday, the AFP reported. Two other demonstrations against austerity and the “euro” are planned for Monday night, one organized via social networks, the other by Antarsya, an anti-euro party that didn’t make it into Parliament.
It would be the first strike against the leftwing Syriza coalition since it came to power six months ago. An ironic plot twist in this tragedy.
Syriza was the big force in the demonstrations against the two prior bailout packages, totaling €240 billion from taxpayers in other countries, conditioned on economic reforms pushed through Parliament by the conservative governments at the time. Now Syriza is looking at having to pass even tougher measures, including an increase in the Value Added Tax and pension reform, in return for only €86 billion in new money from taxpayers in other countries.
Syriza’s junior coalition partner, the Independent Greeks, is already getting cold feet.
“The agreement speaks of €50 billion worth of guarantees concerning public property, of changes to the law including the confiscation of homes… We cannot agree to that,”explained Panos Kammenos, the party’s leader, adding that the party would nevertheless remain in the coalition. With “confiscation of homes” he probably meant foreclosing on homes with defaulted mortgages.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is already struggling with strong dissent within Syriza. But ironically, the pro-euro opposition parties, those maligned creatures that ran the show before, may support him in getting these despised measures passed.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Varoufakis’ Stunning Accusation: Schauble Wants A Grexit “To Put The Fear Of God” Into The French
Varoufakis’ Stunning Accusation: Schauble Wants A Grexit “To Put The Fear Of God” Into The French
Earlier we reported that Yanis Varoufakis, seemingly detained by “family reasons” would be unable to join his fellow parliamentarians and personally vote in what is likely the most important vote of Syriza’s administration: the one in which he and his party capitulate to the Troika and vote “Yes” to the proposal he and Tsipras urged everyone to reject just one week ago.
Subsequently, it was made clear what these family reasons are:
The self-described “erratic Marxist” will be on the nearby holiday island of … Aegina. In fact, he Tweeted that he reason for his absence is “family reasons”. Nevertheless, two hours before his Tweet was posted, the once obscure academic was spotted on the ferry boat “Phivos”, headed for Aegina, where his wife owns a stylish vacation home.The author of the “global Minotaur” nevertheless sent a letter to the Parliament president saying he would vote “yes” for the proposal, although the letter will not be counted, given that Parliament regulations stipulate that only deputies on official Parliament business are allowed to cast votes via correspondence.
Judgment aside about his decision to take a holiday from a vote that his strategy guided Greece into, it was clear that he has Wifi on the ferry because this afternoon, While V-Fak may well have been in transit, the Guardian released an Op-Ed penned by Varoufakis titled “Germany won’t spare Greek pain – it has an interest in breaking us.” Readers can read it in its entirety here but here is the punchline:
“The Barricades Are Down” Syriza Is Already Rolling Back Austerity “Reforms”
“The Barricades Are Down” Syriza Is Already Rolling Back Austerity “Reforms”
It didn’t take long for Syriza to start making changes in Greece. While these may be minor at the margin compared to the debt “issues”, as KeepTalkingGreece reports, Alexis Tsipras and his junior coalition partner Panos Kammenos pushed the Fast Forward button to restore a series of so-called “reforms”, that is austerity measures imposed by the country’s lenders, the Troika – among the left-wing reforms are: scrapping planned privatizations, scrapping fees in public hospitals and prescriptions, restore “the 13th pension” for low-pensioners and other actions that SYRIZA had promised before the elections. And the iron barricades in front of Parliament have been removed.
Iron Barricades
The first revolutionary move was conducted by alternate Minister responsible for Citizens’ Protection and Public Order. Yiannis Panousis removed the iron barricades in front of the Greek Parliament. The barricades were installed to protect the lawmakers from angry demonstrators after the huge anti-austerity protests from 2010 onwards.
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Greece dissolves parliament for January vote – Europe – Al Jazeera English
Greece dissolves parliament for January vote – Europe – Al Jazeera English.
Greece’s parliament has been dissolved ahead of an early election that will be warily watched by markets and international creditors concerned that the austerity-weary country could starting unwinding unpopular fiscal reforms.
It was parliament’s failure to choose a new president in three successive votes this month that triggered the snap poll.
As its first order of business, the new chamber must elect a successor to 85-year-old Karolos Papoulias, whose five-year term ends in March
A statement from the chamber on Wednesday confirmed the election would be held on January 25, as announced on Monday by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, and the new parliament would reconvene on February 5.
