Los Angeles Times
October 21, 2011
Defying raging protests that left one man dead, Greece's Parliament on Thursday approved additional austerity measures to secure desperately needed financial aid and stave off the country's imminent default.
The beleaguered government eked out 154 votes in favor, just three more than it needed to approve the legislation, which included tax hikes, wage and pension cuts, and the termination of 30,000 jobs in the costly public sector.
Two lawmakers were absent and 144, mainly conservative deputies, voted against the bill, the second and final vote on the unpopular austerity measures in two days.
Although widely anticipated, the outcome offered some respite for beleaguered Prime Minister George Papandreou, who quickly took to the floor of the 300-seat assembly to thank lawmakers from his Socialist party, known as PASOK, after the vote. He then expelled Louka Katseli, a leading party member, for making good on her threat to vote down a single article of the bill calling for the liberalization of labor regulations.
"Passage of these measures," Papandreou said in a written statement as the vote closed, "was a matter of national responsibility … intended to secure the financing needs of the country, avert bankruptcy and … safeguard the future of every Greek family."
Outside Parliament, though, thousands of seething, crisis-fatigued Greeks clearly disagreed.
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