After hours of speeches at the Parliament plenary, which began on Saturday and… ended on a Sunday, a majority of Parliament MPs voted to hold a referendum on July 5 on the question on whether the last proposal by institutional creditors should be accepted, or not. The vote count was 178 Yes, 120 No, 2 MPs were absent.

The debate began by Minister of Interior Nikos Voutsis who took it upon himself to explain the reasons of the government for backing the decision by Greek PM Alexis Tsipras.

The Minister stated that “the game continues” noting that “the game is not over for our government and this Parliament”.

“The game will end against those who insist on limiting the rights of the people, Parliament, and the country’s sovereignty”, he stated addressing both Europeans and Greek citizens.

“There are no dead-ends”, he noted.

Evangelos Venizelos followed after Voutsis. The former PASOK president characterized the vote as unconstitutional.

The characterization was overturned by the plenary.

ND and PASOK MPs charged that the government’s proposal is against the Greek people, Europe and the Constitution.

The vote passed at 3 a.m. local time on Sunday and a referendum, the first in 40 years since the fall of the Junta, will take place next week, on the proposal by the “Institutions” — as the troika of institutional creditors are called after SYRIZA’s election victory…