by Christos Ntatsios
On Wednesday the Greek Government brought the list of prior actions that it had agreed upon with the European creditors to be voted by the Greek parliament.
This is not a bill of law but a description of the actions that Greece must take in order for the creditors to agree to reopen negotiations concerning the Greek problem. In the following days specific laws will have to be passed both introducing the measures as well as nullifying some previous laws that the Eurozone leaders don’t agree with.
In a very heated debate several of the MPs who side with the Government argued against passing the agreement. 32 of them voted “no” while 8 others chose to answer “present”, a vote of abstention which typically counts as nothing but is certainly against the governmental suggestion.
In the Greek system, a vote passes if it can garner 151 votes out of the 300 MP’s. With 40 people voting against the government majority was lost (SYRIZA has 149 MPs and governs in a coalition with 13 more from ANEL). The vote passed with the additional 'yes' votes that members of the opposing parties cast.
As we clarified this is just the beginning; the specific laws will now have to be passed and a vote taken for each one of them. In his speech, the leader of the opposition made it very clear that “…we will help you pass the laws but you cannot realize them without a parliament majority”, “…from now on you will have to ask us”. Later on, the opposition MP Mr. Georgiadis told VimaFm: “they can no longer do whatever they want, if they try to pass any law with which we disagree, we will simply stop voting for the prior action bills”
The conclusion is obvious, the Prime Minister cannot count on his parliament majority in order to govern and the opposition is not willing to be the “bad guy” without having some say in the work of legislation. It is thus very difficult to see how Mr.Tsipras will be able to hold on to his position for much longer. A few hours ago, the PM announced a government reshuffle. In it, he excluded from the cabinet all those MP’s who voted against the “prior actions” deal.
It must be noted that Mr.Tsipras has already stated that this is a deal he does not believe in, but that he was forced to accept it so that a Grexit could avoided, and banks would reopen. He has also promised that all the efforts of his government will be invested in finalizing a deal with Europe and making sure that Greece stays in the Eurozone.
The voices that criticize the Prime Minister both for his decision to hold a referendum and for the austerity of the deal that he has brought back from Brussels are multiplying. The consensus seems to be that all Mr.Tsipras can do now is keep the government for a few months, make an agreement with the creditors, and call for elections.