In an environment full of obstacles and mutiny in the ranks of SYRIZA and announcements for protests in the streets, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras submitted in front of the National Assembly the new three-year agreement with Greece’s creditors. There is optimism that the agreement will get a green light by Friday morning.
The agreement that will open the country to fresh money, and will subsequently mean new austerity for its financial regime, is expected to gain support by the three major opposition parties – The River party, Nea Demokratia and PASOK. Not all of SYRIZA’s MP’s will support it however. The Greek government is expecting the agreement to be voted without delays so that it can pay off the first tranche of the new loan. If that gets done, Greece can cover its financials debts at home and internationally.
Greek MP’s will have to decide on the new loan package of 85 billion euros on Thursday. The package contains a set of measures such as changes in the VAT on the islands, reforms in the pension system and in the public administration, liberalizing the labor market for certain professions, changing the way in which debts are paid to the state, revoking tax benefits to casinos and farmers, increasing the tax for enrolling in private colleges, instituting a new system that tackles tax evaders, liberalizing the energy market and more.
The first obstacle on Tsipras’ in voting the new agreement was set by the Assembly’s President Zoi Konstantopoulou who postponed the discussion in Parliament for late Thursday afternoon, which means votes will be cast early on Friday, like it happened in the previous two votes on the agreement’s measures. The second immediate obstacle is the position of the radical left wing of SYRIZA, lead by the former Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, who said publically that he and his comrades will not support the agreement because it does not fit a Government lead by SYRIZA and that it will lead to new catastrophic consequences for the Greek economy.
It is left to be seen whether new losses will be inflicted on Tsipras besides the position of far-left MPs, but it is clear that there is a rupture in his party and that it will have to undergo drastic changes. In other words this vote is yet another test for the governing party and for its internal stability.
Parallel with the battle of leftist MPs not to pass the new set of measures, which would mean a whole new financial burden on the people, worker syndicates ADEDI and the communist syndicate PAME are also putting up a fight. The syndicates are calling for mass protests in front of the Assembly, whose goal will be to prevent the passing of the new packet measures. They are calling on the Government not to fulfill the demands of Greece’s creditors and to, instead, protect the workers, their salaries and pensions, to work for the opening of new jobs and to decrease unemployment, to protect state-owned land from being sold off and to help companies from being privatized.
