October 19, 2011
Despite one of the largest demonstrations in Athens in months, the Greek Parliament took the first step Wednesday night toward pushing a new raft of austerity measures into law and securing crucial rescue funding by approving a bill in principle.
The controversial bill — which includes additional wage and pension cuts, public sector layoffs and changes to collective bargaining rules — passed with all 154 governing party legislators in Greece’s 300-seat Parliament voting in favor. There were 141 votes against the bill with five legislators absent from the roll call. The bill cannot become law until a second vote — on the separate articles of the legislation — on Thursday. The measures are expected to pass.
Earlier, skirmishes between demonstrators and the police had broken out outside the Parliament as tens of thousands of Greeks took to the streets at the start of a two-day general strike called by the country’s two main labor unions. A crowd of dozens of youths took advantage of the moment to smash several storefronts and begin looting.
The police put crowd estimates at around 80,000 people; some news Web sites said more than 100,000. The police would not release official figures yet.
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