Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faced a rising wave of hostility from members of his own party Wednesday ahead of a parliament vote on an austerity bill that condemns the country to years of spending cuts but is required to get a new bailout package. Clashes broke out at Greek anti-austerity rally by thousands of protesters outside Parliament.
The raft of consumer tax increases and pension reforms has led to growing anger among Greece’s governing left-wing Syriza party, while the country’s civil servants’ union voiced its objections with a 24-hour public sector strike.
The vote will almost certainly see large numbers of Syriza lawmakers dissent and vote against the package, raising questions of the Government’s survival in its current form. The bill is expected to pass with votes in favor by pro-European opposition parties. Alternate Finance Minister Nadia Valavani said she would not vote in favor of the bill, and resigned from her Government seat.
In a letter she sent Tsipras on Monday morning and released by the finance ministry Wednesday, Valavani said she believed the tactics of the “dominant circles in Germany” was “the full humiliation of the Government and the country.”
Tsipras agreed to a deal after a marathon 17-hour eurozone summit Monday morning. It calls for Greece to pass new austerity measures his left-wing Government had long battled against in return for the start of negotiations on a third bailout worth about 85 billion euros in loans over three years.
The Government, a coalition between Syriza and the small right-wing Independent Greeks, holds 162 seats in Greece’s 300-member Parliament. More than 30 of Syriza’s own lawmakers have publicly voiced objections.