Austerity Plan for Greece Wins Passage in Parliament

New York Times
February 12, 2012

As hooded youths torched shops and battled police in the streets of Athens on Sunday, lawmakers approved a tough austerity package that is expected to help the country avoid default.

Out of the 300 members of Parliament, 199 voted yes, 74 voted no, 5 voted present while 22 were absent.

Lawmakers accepted the plan after Greece’s so-called troika of foreign lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — had demanded the measures in exchange for about $170 billion in bailout money. The troika had also made passage a condition for sealing a deal in which private creditors will take voluntary losses of up to 70 percent of Greek debt.

The outcome was widely expected, though many lawmakers grudgingly voted for the measure.

Addressing Parliament shortly before a crucial vote, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos stressed that rejection of the bill would plunge the country into bankruptcy. He appealed to lawmakers to do their “patriotic duty” and make the “most significant strategic choice a Greek government has faced in decades.”

Still, he acknowledged that the program was “tough and calls for sacrifices from a broad range of citizens who have already made sacrifices.”

But the alternative, “a disastrous default,” would be worse, he said.

“Our country has been experiencing the biggest crisis since the restoration of democracy,” Mr. Papademos said referring to the fall of Greece’s military dictatorship in 1974. “It started as a crisis of fiscal deficit and public debt and has now become a broader economic, social and national crisis.”

As lawmakers debated, angry gangs outside smashed the facades of stores to loot them and targeted banks or branches of foreign chain stores. A Starbucks was among those to go up in flames. The crowd swelled as the day went on; chanting “traitors” in the streets outside Parliament.

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A deputy from the Communist Party, Giorgos Mavrikos, threw his copy of the austerity bill at Evangelos Venizelos, the finance minister, during the debate on Sunday.