Despite a barrage of widespread and harsh criticism by all opposition parties in parliament the new memorandum was approved on principle by the competent parliamentary committees with the support of the government coalition deputies of SYRIZA and ANEL. The new memorandum, which is part of an omnibus bill, is scheduled to be debated in a plenary session of the Greek parliament on Wednesday at 10am amid nationwide strikes and protests. Talks in the parliamentary committees is expected to end at 8pm Tuesday with the voting of specific articles, while the voting of Wednesday’s parliamentary plenum will end after a roll-call vote scheduled for Thursday night. During deliberations in the parliamentary committees, SYRIZA’s rapporteur of the bill, Christos Karagiannidis attempted to save face over his recent admission that he lacked any expertise in economics and that he approached the matter adopting a layman’s knowledge in accounting, by underlining that the government’s aim in bringing in the new memorandum was to support the common citizens who were bearing the brunt of the new measures.