There was speculation as to what stand Zoe Konstantopoulou would  take concerning the fast-track voting of legislation imposed by Greece’s partners in exchange for funds for Greece. Rumors had pointed to Konstantopoulou voting against the last-ditch deal and then resigning from her position even though she had stated her refusal to resign, however parliamentary debate began without her presence at the bench.

She took the floor from her seat as a deputy with fiery rhetoric. “It is clear that what is being achieved is via blackmail to the prime minister, government and parliament so that a policy that the prime minister himself – who I respect greatly – but I need to state his stand today, but parliament should not accept or complete the blackmail against the government,” she said, pointing to three weeks of bank stoppage purposely created to push through these reforms.

“There is new data that the government needs to have the clarity and calm to take a decision,” she said, pointing to the IMF document published on Tuesday that recommends debt restructuring. “Some external and internal forces desire for legislation to be passed so we don’t have time to examine the new data.” She pointed to the parliament’s obligation to not allow blackmailing to continue. She felt the need to tell the Greek nation that there was blackmail occuring and she called on Greece’s partners to “respect democracy and parliamentary operations. No parliament can legislate under such asphyxiating operations.”