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Parliamentary Maneuvers in Greece Ahead of Austerity Vote Greek Parliament Holds, Barely, on More Austerity
(about 7 hours later)
ATHENS — Hours before the Greek Parliament was scheduled to vote on a controversial austerity budget package Wednesday, its supporters fought off an opposition effort to declare the legislation unconstitutional. ATHENS — Amid some of the most violent demonstrations in Greece in months, the Parliament approved a sweeping set of austerity measures early Thursday that were aimed at keeping the country in the euro zone, but passage was so narrow that the government’s continued stability remained at risk.
The main opposition party, the left-leaning Syriza, withdrew its demand for a constitutionality vote after it became apparent that enough members of Parliament from the ruling coalition were on hand to block the proposal. After 14 hours of debate, the three-party coalition of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras held together to pass the measures, 153 to 128, after several lawmakers broke ranks. Eighteen members voted present, the equivalent of a blank vote, including 15 from the smallest coalition party, Democratic Left, which opposes the measures. There was one abstention.
The maneuvering came during what is expected to be a lengthy parliamentary debate here before a vote on the budget package, which is not expected to occur before late Wednesday evening or early Thursday. After the vote, six lawmakers were expelled from the governing coalition’s Socialist Pasok party and one from the conservative New Democracy party
The budget legislation, which is expected to pass by a thin margin, is meant to cut the government budget by €17 billion, or $21.7 billion, over the next four years. The measures, which include sharp cuts to pensions, salaries and social services, as well as tax increases and raising the retirement age to 67 from 65 — is expected, but not guaranteed, to persuade Greece’s foreign creditors to unlock 31 billion euros in aid the country needs to meet expenses.
The new budget is a prerequisite to international lenders’ agreeing to give Greece €31.5 billion in rescue loans that the country needs to remain solvent. A vote on the 2013 budget to activate the austerity package is expected late Sunday.
The measures include new cuts to pensions, civil service salaries and social benefits. Critics say the budget will aggravate the country’s recession, which is in its sixth year and has pushed the unemployment rate above 25 percent. In presenting the austerity measures, which total 17 billion euros, to Parliament, Mr. Samaras acknowledged that the new cuts to pensions and salaries were “unfair,” but added that Greece was bound by the terms of its agreement with creditors.
Last week, the Court of Auditors, which vets bills before they go to Greece’s Parliament, ruled that certain elements of the budget package — like additional cuts to pensions — could be construed as violating Greece’s Constitution. But the finance ministry, which drafted the legislation, declared the ruling nonbinding. “A lot of what we’re voting on today are measures we should have taken a long time ago,” he said, adding that they would be “the last, the last” such cuts. Future “adjustments,” he said, would come from a crackdown on tax evasion and public sector waste.
On Wednesday, Greece’s supreme court ruled that proposed cuts of up to 30 percent to the salaries of judges, as part of a reduction of civil servants’ pay, would violate the Constitution’s protections of judges’ “personal and operational independence.” There was no immediate indication from the finance ministry on whether that part of the budget bill would be removed. Mr. Samaras, however, is the third prime minister to promise the “last cuts” since Greece asked for a foreign bailout in 2010. The deep cuts, which have helped Greece’s economy shrink 25 percent in recent years, are undermining the country’s social and political stability — and the government’s ability to carry out the structural changes.
Earlier in the day, with the parliamentary debate already under way, many members of the ruling coalition parties that support the legislation had not yet arrived. In an apparent attempt to take advantage of their absence, Syriza and a right-wing opposition party called Independent Greeks called for a vote on the constitutionality of the austerity package. But once coalition members rushed to Parliament to ward off that move, Syriza withdraw the challenge. “You can’t rebuild institutions when you’ve cut down the salaries of people who work for them,” said Alexis Papahelas, the managing editor of the Kathimerini daily. “That’s the big problem the government and the country are facing.”
The Syriza leader, Alexis Tsipras, whose party is leading in the polls and this week called for new elections, complained about the late arrivals. “At a time that an objection regarding constitutionality is being discussed, you should be here, not at your homes and then come by taxi to distort the result,” he said. On the eve of the vote, nearly 50 employees of Greece’s central bank resigned to protest the deep cuts to public sector salaries, while on Wednesday, Greece’s Supreme Court ruled that cuts of up to 30 percent in judge’s salaries would violate the constitution.
Evangelos Venizelos, leader of the Socialists, who are part of the ruling coalition, countered with a Twitter post noting that Greece’s first bailout loan deal in 2010 had been approved by the Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court. Parliamentary staff also threatened Wednesday to resign over their salary cuts, leading Mr. Samaras to consider invoking executive authority to force them to stay on the job, according to a government official not authorized to speak publicly.
Greece’s troika of foreign lenders — the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund — have demanded that Greece reduce its budget deficit in exchange for more aid.
Yet few believe that the measures will help improve the country’s economic health.
“Telling a whole people that they have to commit collective suicide to save the debt is not a policy,” Zoe Kostantopoulou, a member of Parliament from the leftist Syriza opposition party, said in an interview, expressing a sentiment growing across the political spectrum.
“The reason why we’ve seen the economy implode much more rapidly than thought is that they grossly underestimated the impact that fiscal austerity of this magnitude would have on the Greek economy,” said Simon Tilford, the chief economist at the Center for European Reform in London. “Additional austerity is going to compound that weakness.”
He added that the slump in the economy was also making it harder for Greece to meet the troika’s demands to reduce a mountain of debt. “The whole strategy for Greece has failed,” Mr. Tilford said. “It’s led to collapse in the Greek economy and the ballooning of debt so it’s an abject failure.”.
Stella Dimitrakopolou, a 29-year-old graphic designer who donned a surgical mask to ward off tear gas in Wednesday’s demonstration, agreed.
“These measures are inhumane,” she said. “The young generation has no future, and older people have no money and the measures do not help society economically.”

Niki Kitsantonis contributed reporting