ATHENS (MNI) – Greece’s parliament Thursday approved the multi-year
fiscal plan offered by the government which aims at reducing the
deficit to 2.9% of GDP by 2014.
The votes were 154 in favor and 144 against. The result was widely
expected.
However, one ruling Socialist Party member, Luka Katseli, refused
to vote in favor of a specific article, 37, on the abolishment of the
minimum wage. She voted in favor of the rest of the articles. Prime
Minister George Papandreou decided to expel her from the party, as his
office announced shortly after the vote.
Pasok has now a fragile majority of 153 out of the 300
parliamentary seats.
The vote took place in the midst of a two-day massive general
strike of the public and private sectors and demonstrations which turned
violent. One person died today from cardiac arrest.
The multi-year plan includes further direct and indirect tax hikes,
new round of salary and pension cuts and public sector lay-offs.
The Greek government now hopes that the eurozone finance ministers,
meeting in Brussels tomorrow, will release the much delayed sixth loan
tranche of 8 billion euros.
Papandreou will be heading to Brussels on Sunday to take part in
the EU and Eurozone summit, hoping to get a permanent solution to the
Greek debt problem. However, speaking to his cabinet earlier Thursday,
he said that it is still unclear whether the EU leaders will be able to
reach a unanimous decision.
–email: a_papamiltiadou@hotmail.com
** Market News International **
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