EUROZONE-GREECE/PARLIAMENT-TSAKALOTOS Greek Finance Minister tells parliament: "We had no other choice but do what we did"

Record ID: 147049

  • Title: EUROZONE-GREECE/PARLIAMENT-TSAKALOTOS Greek Finance Minister tells parliament: "We had no other choice but do what we did"
  • Date: 15th July 2015
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (JULY 15, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT HOLDING A GREEK FLAG WITH "GREECE, I LOVE YOU" VARIOUS OF LAWMAKERS ON PARLIAMENT BALCONY, INCLUDING REBEL SYRIZA DEPUTY, EFTSTATHIOS LEOUTSAKOS
  • Embargoed: 30th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4RP2RX3IT3EQTNASAJGTNKU65
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Greek lawmakers prepared on Wednesday (July 15) to vote on a painful austerity package that European creditors have demanded in return for a new bailout to keep the country in the euro, as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras struggled to contain a backlash in his own leftwing party against the deal that he was forced to accept after gruelling talks in Brussels earlier this week.
    With pro-European opposition parties set to back the bailout, the measures are expected to pass some time after midnight. But around 30-40 Syriza lawmakers are likely either to abstain or vote against the government, raising a question mark over how long Tsipras can remain in office.
    Former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who was sacked by Tsipras last week, earlier denounced the bailout as "a new Versailles Treaty" - the agreement that demanded unaffordable reparations from Germany after its defeat in World War One.
    Deputy Finance Minister Nadia Valavani resigned and Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis said he would not back the deal.
    Even ministers supporting the deal, such as new Finance Minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, could muster little enthusiasm for an accord which will impose a mix of tax increases, public spending clamps and pension and labour reforms on the already severely weakened economy.
    "I must tell you that Monday, 9:30 in the morning, was the most difficult day of my life. I made a decision that will burden me for the rest of my life. I don't know if we did the right thing. However, I do know that we felt like we had no other choice but do what we did," said Tsakalotos.
    "We do not claim and never, in fact, claimed that this is a good agreement. I call on everyone to contemplate whether, all of us together, can move forward and do our best for the market and for this country," he continued to say.
    A snap election could follow if the Prime Minister's majority collapses.
    Junior coalition leader Panos Kammenos, head of Independent Greeks, warned that whoever voted against the deal would playing into the hands of those who did not wish the leftist party to remain in power.
    "If today, this government falls, then there will be no hope for Greece or Europe. It is clear, absolutely clear that circles defending the new world order, German circles, with Mr. Schaueble at their helm, want Greece to become an example, proving their hegemony and their banks," said Kammenos.
    Parliamentary speaker for the centre-right New Democracy party, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said that they would vote in favour to remain in Europe.
    "Right now they are taking a burden which is not theirs to bear. We will vote in measures out of a sense of national conscience, not out of a sense of party discipline. Because we know that this is our duty. Some of our lawmaker colleagues in their electoral prefectures, some Syriza colleagues, will tell people 'I didn't vote for those measures.' It is politically convenient to say something like this. We, as New Democracy, will not do this. We will rise to the occasion and we will vote, today, and we will vote on the 23rd, mister minister. And we'll see what we will do in the future," said Mitsotakis.
    Tsipras is expected to reshuffle his cabinet after the vote, replacing Lafazanis and Deputy Labour Minister Dimitris Stratoulis, another bailout opponent, and possibly making other changes.
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