The new media legislation passed in the Greek Parliament with 154 votes of the ruling coalition parties – SYRIZA and Independent Greeks (ANEL) – and the vote of independent deputy Nikos Nikolopoulos, late on Thursday night.

Main opposition New Democracy, Democratic Coalition, Potami and Centrists Union voted against, with 102 votes in total.

Fourteen deputies of the Golden Dawn and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) stated “present”, as did independent deputy Stathis Panagoulis and another 30 deputies were absent.

During the debate in parliament Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras replied to opposition criticism which objects to the number saying they are too few and several other aspects of the procedure bringing as an example the media market of other European countries.

“Are they stupid in the rest of Europe where they have a limited number of licenses? EU countries with a population similar in size to Greece’s have two not four licenses,” he noted adding that countries with much larger populations like France and Germany have five and six respectively.

“Therefore the four licenses we’re proposing are too many, not too few,” he said.

Main opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said pluralism is in danger in Greece as a result of the government’s decree on the sale of broadcasting licenses.

Commenting on the context of the decree, the leader of New Democracy said “pluralism is in danger” and accused the government of following “regime-style practices” which push the country away from European values.

“If you wanted to promote pluralism you would want to give more licenses. You have confused the free market with the licensing regime. There is no technical limitation on the status of licenses. Why don’t you impose similar restrictions on the functioning of other markets – restaurants, hairdressers, cinemas?” he said.