(UPD-01:00)
After a heated two and a half-hour debate among the 20 members of the Greek Parliamentary Conferences on the question of when the Greek Parliament would convene in plenum to discuss the new bailout plan, it was finally decided, with 11 votes in favor and 7 against and 2 present from the Greek Communist Party (KKE), that the Parliament Plenary would commence talks at 1.30 am in the morning of Friday.
Parliament speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou had filibustered procedures by stretching the ‘letter of the law’ in order to stall the deal Greece has struck with its creditors from coming to parliament for a vote.
Greece is running out of time, as the deal needs to pass through the Greek parliament Thursday, before it can be approved by Friday’s Eurogroup meeting and other EU parliaments so that the cash-strapped country can receive a first disbursement from the ESM it so desperately needs. The discussion is expected to last for 3 hours, after which the Bill will be put to a vote.
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Another …marathon session of Greece’s Parliament is expected on Thursday, as debate began – in an urgent process – over a draft bill that is essentially the third bailout memorandum.
Debate began an hour later than scheduled.
However, in first taking the podium Finance Minister Eucleid Tsakalotos said whoever is against the request for the urgent procedure in Parliament leads the country into a “bridge loan” regime.
“I need to go to the Eurogroup on Friday, as procedures begin in European parliament over the Greek agreement, with Finland first,” Tsakalotos said.
In an extremely tense session even before addresses of MPs — four minutes at most — were to begin, Tsakalotos charged that Konstantopoulou and other anti-memorandum MPs were intentionally delaying the process.
On her part, Konstantopoulou referred to “authoritarian regimes” and “intelligence services”, to which ruling SYRIZA rapporteur Nikos Filis replied that even the former’s claim that she is being targeted creates “major institutional problems”.
Konstantopoulou has repeatedly charged that Tsakalotos and Minister of State Alekos Flambouraris are intentionally targeting her. She took particular offense to a statement by Flambouraris citing … Freud in a veiled reference to Konstantopoulou’s actions in Parliament.
Moreover, the veteran leftist and close confidant of PM Alexis Tsipras said that “…if we fall under 120 MPs (below the 150+1 that marks a majority in the Greek Parliament) it would mean that the government can’t last anymore”.
“We will be forced through rapid procedures to solve this discord,” he said in televised statements.
