Thirteen top cadres and deputies of ruling SYRIZA party on Sunday requested snap elections, amid a pending agreement that envisions more austerity measures in 2019 and 2020 -- mainly pension cuts and higher income tax contributions from low wage-earners.
The tabled request came during a SYRIZA central committee meeting on Sunday, where the tentative agreement with creditors was put to a vote. The result was 113 in favor; 11 against and 12 blank votes cast, which means that SYRIZA leader and PM Alexis Tsipras will now bring the agreement to Parliament for ratification.
The latest compromise with institutional creditors essentially paves the way for a conclusion of the delayed second review of the Greek program. In a bid to “sweeten” yet another round of austerity, the Tsipras government has asked for and received “countervailing” measures that will ostensibly be implemented if fiscal targets are met.
The “off-set” measures have mostly been delineated by the current leftist-rightist coalition as extra spending for lower-income and vulnerable classes, segments of the population that it considers as its grassroots voters.
In pressing for snap elections, the nascent “internal opposition” in the previously anti-bailout, anti-austerity SYRIZA party warned that implementation of “anti-popular measures” such as pension cuts, a significant reduction in the tax-free threshold and what they called “the sell-off of state property” will break “SYRIZA’s substantive contact with the poorer social strata.”
