The Tsipras government, as expected, received a vote of confidence in Parliament on Friday evening, with a political "hodgepodge" of 153 MPs (out of 298 deputies present) providing the necessary majority weeks before a European Parliament election that the opposition views as the real "confidence vote".
No less than eight deputies that do not belong to hard left SYRIZA's Parliamentary group voted for the government, six of which held or hold current Cabinet seats, the majority of whom began their political career on the right-wing of center-right New Democracy (ND) party. One Friday they were joined by a deputy from the Union of Centrists, Ioannis Saridis.
The remaining opposition MPs voted against the confidence measure, which initially began as a vote of censure against controversial Alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis.
