Greece debt crisis: Eurozone deal laws backed by MPs

[Bosonic]

Source: BBC

Greek MPs have approved tough economic measures required to enable an €86bn eurozone bailout deal to go ahead.

The new legislation includes tax rises and an increase in the retirement age.

Ahead of the vote, protesters threw petrol bombs at police during an anti-austerity protest close to parliament, and police responded with tear gas.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had said he did not believe in the deal, but nonetheless urged MPs to agree to the measures.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33535205

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Final Greek Parliament Vote

Yes: 228
No: 64
Present: 6

[potone]

1. I feel sick at what they are facing.

There were no good choices, but as a Greek friend reminded me, they have lived through worse, and will survive this, too.

[PoliticAverse]

4. They don't have a "plan B", they desperately need money so have to agree to the terms. n/t

[reorg]

2. Varoufakis Opposes

Yanis Varoufakis, the former finance minister who clashed repeatedly with Wolfgang Schaeuble of Germany, was among 38 members of Syriza’s 149-member parliamentary caucus who either voted “no” or abstained.

bloomberg.com

and explains why:

The Euro-Summit ‘Agreement’ on Greece – annotated by Yanis Varoufakis

The Euro Summit statement (or Terms of Greece’s Surrender – as it will go down in history) follows, annotated by yours truly. The original text is untouched with my notes confined to square brackets (and in red). Read and weep…

[PoliticAverse]

3. Just a few days ago he said he'd vote yes. n/t

[FLPanhandle]

5. So why didn't Varoufakis try to implement some changes to the Greek system before?

Easy to bitch when out of power.

When he was the Finance Minister, did he try to clean up their Byzantine tax system? - No.
Did he try to increase taxes on the wealthy? - No.
Did he propose taxing the shipping industry? - No.
Did he try to increase taxes on high end purchases like swimming pools and yachts? - No.

He did nothing but make the situation worse and now he complains when the EU forces some clean up of the system.

There was nothing stopping the Greeks from their own cleanup before being forced.

[reorg]

6. from his interview with the New Statesman:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6972158

[FLPanhandle]

7. From his interview

"let’s implement them immediately. And you relax the restrictions on liquidity from the ECB"

That's not unilaterally fixing your system. That's doing some fix with conditions from the EU.

My question was "Why not just fix the Greek broken system"?

None of this, I'll fix this now, and in return you do that crap.

He wasn't willing to fix his broken system unless there was some condition tied to it. No wonder the EU rejected that approach.

There was nothing stopping the Greeks from improving their system without having to be paid off or having a gun to their head.

They weren't willing.

[reorg]

8. No, you stopped reading here:

... they said “No, no, no, this has to be a comprehensive review. Nothing will be implemented if you dare introduce any legislation. It will be considered unilateral action inimical to the process of reaching an agreement.”

http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2015/07/yanis-varoufakis-full-transcript-our-battle-save-greece

[roamer65]

9. Imagine a United States with the Federal Reserve, but no federal budget.

All fiscal policy takes place at the state level. Some states could easily finance in dollars, while others would find it quite difficult. It would literally be like having to run each state in a foreign currency.

Welcome to the Eurozone. In the absence of a redistributative fiscal union, they now have to substitute "bailouts" of Eurozone sovereign governments.

The EU either forms a fiscal Union or the Euro fails. It's that simple.