Wall Street Journal
February 13, 2012
Greece’s parliament may have passed legislation to satisfy its official creditors, but the vote doesn’t end the uncertainty. The mood in the legislature on Sunday night suggests another question: How committed are Greece’s political leaders to the reforms they passed?
As 199 deputies in the 300-seat parliament voted in favor of the legislation, 43 deputies from the two main parties voted against their leaders’ orders and were subsequently thrown out of the parties.
With Greek politics in flux and elections set to take place in April, the question remains whether Greece’s future prime minister and his deputies will continue to throw their weight behind implementing the overhaul of the Greek economy and state administration.
The conservative New Democracy party and its leader Antonis Samaras, who support the caretaker government led by Lucas Papademos, are set to win the elections in April. Yet New Democracy saw 21 of its own deputies defect, bringing his control of parliament seats down from 83 to 62.
The socialist Pasok party, winner of the last elections in 2009, saw 22 defections and now has 131 deputies in parliament after its leader and former prime minister George Papandreou, who fell from grace when he called for a surprise referendum in November, also removed the defectors from party ranks. Pasok is in the midst of an internal leadership struggle that may see current finance minister Evangelos Venizelos become chief.
In the short-run, the concern is commitment. Mr Papandreou will undoubtedly support the program– the main question is over Mr Samaras.
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