Greece Approves Second Set of Changes Needed for Bailout
Source: New York Times
ATHENS — Under the threat of yet another deadline, the Greek Parliament approved a second package of policy changes early Thursday that the country’s creditors had said must be in place before the detailed negotiations for an 86-billion-euro bailout could begin.
The new measures, overhauling the banking and judicial systems, passed easily with significant support from opposition parties eager to do whatever it takes to keep Greece from leaving the eurozone. The vote was 230 to 63, with five abstentions and two absences.
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Mr. Tsipras spoke just before the vote, telling members of Parliament that the final terms of the deal with creditors were still under negotiation and that more would be done to protect the poorest members of Greek society. “We’re not done here,” he said, adding: “We are fighting to improve the final text of the deal. We will fight for countermeasures and for funds for society.”
The rift within Mr. Tsipras’s party has grown heated in recent days, with both sides taking shots at each other and the government’s spokesman saying that a “divorce” might be inevitable. The vote showed that Mr. Tsipras had gained support from one of his most vocal critics lately, his former finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, who stepped down this month in an apparent gesture to European creditors who had found him difficult to deal with.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/world/europe/alexis-tsipras-greek-debt-deadline.html?_r=0
