An omnibus draft bill containing the remaining “prior actions” and reforms demanded by European creditors to conclude the fourth review of the ongoing bailout was passed by a slim Parliament majority on Thursday, essentially by the remaining 154 MPs elected from hard left SYRIZA and its junior partner, the right-wing AN.EL party.
Of 300 deputies in Parliament, 298 voted, of which 144 voted against.
In subsequent statements, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras referred to a “historic moment” for Greece, as entailed in the coming exit from the memorandum era.
He also said the latest bailout-related legislation is the “result of negotiations with the institutions (Greece’s creditors), which for the past eight years have directed (Greek) governments’ decisions … today we are voting, for the last time, on measures for the last review of the last program.”
On his part, main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis was, as expected, caustic with his political rival, saying the Tsipras government “ends its tenure the way it began: with lies”.
Mitsotakis also referred to a “fourth memorandum without financing… the second consecutive one that bears the signatures Tsipras, Kammenos,” the latter a reference Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, the head of the rightist-populist Independent Greeks’ (AN.EL) party.
