Greece’s government voted by a razor thin margin on Thursday to
approve an austerity package needed to unlock vital aid and avert
bankruptcy, despite an internal rift and violent protests at the gates
of parliament.
Lawmakers approved the spending cuts, tax hikes and measures making it easier to hire and fire workers after nearly 100,000 Greeks waving flags and chanting “Fight! They’re drinking our blood!” descended on Syntagma Square in central Athens.
Despite the abstention of their junior ruling partner the Democratic Left, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s New Democracy Party and its Socialist PASOK allies passed the 500-odd page bill shortly after midnight.
They mustered 153 of parliament’s 300 seats, with New Democracy and PASOK expelling seven deputies from their ranks for not backing the measures.
Earlier in the evening, clashes erupted when a handful of protesters tried to break through a barricade to enter the assembly. Riot police responded with teargas, stun grenades and, for the first time in an anti-austerity protest here, water cannon.
Read more: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/11/07/greece-approves-new-austerity-package-as-massive-street-protests-turn-violent/
Lawmakers approved the spending cuts, tax hikes and measures making it easier to hire and fire workers after nearly 100,000 Greeks waving flags and chanting “Fight! They’re drinking our blood!” descended on Syntagma Square in central Athens.
Despite the abstention of their junior ruling partner the Democratic Left, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s New Democracy Party and its Socialist PASOK allies passed the 500-odd page bill shortly after midnight.
They mustered 153 of parliament’s 300 seats, with New Democracy and PASOK expelling seven deputies from their ranks for not backing the measures.
Earlier in the evening, clashes erupted when a handful of protesters tried to break through a barricade to enter the assembly. Riot police responded with teargas, stun grenades and, for the first time in an anti-austerity protest here, water cannon.
Read more: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/11/07/greece-approves-new-austerity-package-as-massive-street-protests-turn-violent/
No comments:
Post a Comment