Austerity bill passes in Greece

Greece’s new austerity and bailout measures were voted in by a narrow
majority in the national Parliament in the early hours of Thursday morning, following a stormy debate and clashes in the streets. The measures passed by 153 votes to 128 against and 18 abstentions. Prime Minister Samaras’s pro-European New Democracy party with the help of most of the deputies of the socialist Pasok party saw the measures through. But during the debate Wednesday evening, rioters hurled petrol bombs spiked with explosive. The police replied with water cannon in the square outside the Parliament building.
Samaras made an impassioned appeal for the salary and pension-slashing measures, saying they were necessary if Greece was not to slide out of the eurozone and into chaos. On the other side of the chamber, the leftwing Syriza party denounced the measures as impoverishing the Greek people, and unconstitutional as well. A small coalition partner, the Democratic Left party, abstained, in effect voting against the government of which it’s a member.
The actual debate was hot and heavy, derailed at one point by Parliament workers protesting the planned abolition of their special salary status. The government hurriedly backed down on that one, earning the scorn of many media commentators here in Athens.
Few were expecting the measures to be actually thrown out. After all, on them hangs Greece’s chances of getting a vital 31 and a half billion euros’ tranche of bailout aid. But judging from the ugly mood of the Greek public, and the bare majority of three that voted for the new round of austerity, most people feel that tolerance for the Samaras government has been stretched very thin.

Listen to the report by Athens correspondent John Carr: