Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told his party’s deputies on Friday that he believes “a large plurality” of citizens in the country acknowledge his government’s “sincere effort” on various fronts, in a bid to bolster morale in the ruling party ahead of a weekend Parliament vote on more tax hikes and a crucial pension reform bill, which aims to reduce the overall state outlay for social security.
With no agreement as yet with institutional lenders, facing a latest demand for a “contingency package” of measures should the first batch fail to meet memorandum targets until 2018, and with a thin majority of deputies in Parliament (153 backing his coalition), Tsipras and his government face a situation increasingly reminiscent of last summer – but with distinctly less international coverage and concern on the part of European partners.
Using a catchphrase employed by previous Greek governments during the crisis years after 2009, Tsipras said pension reform was a “one-way street … even if there was no agreement (the third bailout) … We dared to fish out the snake from the hole,” he said, in using a Greek adage for solving a difficult problem.
The vote on the two draft bills submitted to Parliament for a vote ahead of a new eagerly expected Eurogroup meeting on Monday comes as most television newscasts and newspapers are absent in the country, given a media strike to protest provisions in the pension law.
