A razor-slim government majority ratified the 2017 draft budget in Parliament on Saturday evening, a more-or-less foregone conclusion, given that a negative vote would have meant the collapse of the current radical left-rightist populist coalition.
A razor-slim government majority ratified the 2017 draft budget in Parliament on Saturday evening, a more-or-less foregone conclusion, given that a negative vote would have meant the collapse of the current radical left-rightist populist coalition.
One-hundred and fifty-two deputies in the 300-MP Parliament voted to ratify the draft budget, which in 2017 will mark the second to last year of the current third Greek bailout program.
Opposition parties, who fielded146 deputies on Saturday, voted against, as two MPs were not in the chamber during the vote.
Deputies from ruling SYRIZA were joined by their coalition partners, the previously anti-bailout Independent Greeks (AN.EL) party to pass the budget.
Meanwhile, in the debate that preceded the late-night vote, embattled Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras dismissed any notion of a snap election, saying his government will exhaust "to the very last day" its four-year mandate, which extends through the fall of 2019.
Tsipras, who enthusiastically rode to power in January 2015 after provoking snap elections at the time, and who followed up with another early election in September 2015 after capitulating to creditors' demands, told deputies that "...the Greek people trusted us to take the country out of the crisis that you (the New Democracy party) caused; it gave us a four-year mandate that we will exhaust."
Moreover, the leftist Greek premier, who has seen his personal popularity and that of his government collapse in 2016, promised that 2017 will be a "milestone" year for exiting the economic crisis.
On his part, former minister and main opposition New Democracy (ND) president Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to an unprecedented decline in the country over the two years that the coalition Tsipras government has been in power.
"The cost of you in government is enormous ... you have no plan, and the only thing you are doing is imposing 2.6 billion euros in new taxes, which you claim does not undermine companies' competitiveness; most of the taxes are indirect, which you used to claim were unfair."
Additionally, Mitsotakis said proposed measures insinuated by creditors, and which accompanied the announcement of short-term debt relief last week -- extending to far-off 2060 -- are essentially a fourth memorandum.