After much speculation regarding the vote for the budget in Parliament and whether any MPs of the coalition government would rebel against the government line, the “budget of recovery, prospect and hope”, as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras dubbed it, was approved with 153 votes, compared to 142 votes against.
The approval of the budget in Parliament was a significant milestone for Mr. Samaras’ cabinet, as it prepares to address a number of critical issues with the elusive troika, such as the primary residence auctions and the ultimate fate of the domestic defense industries.
Despite the critical nature of the budget though, the sessions in Parliament leading up to the Saturday evening vote were sparsely-attended. The President of Parliament Dragasakis commented that “it is not nice for the Ministers and political leaders to talk amongst themselves”, however few Ministers responded to the call until the crucial vote later in the evening.
The Minister of Finances Yannis Stournaras was targeted by many MPs on Friday for his estimation that Greeks are “not overtaxed” and the “need to abolish tax exemptions”. The Minister responded that his role was to be efficient rather than pleasant and argued that the opposition did not have a viable alternative.
The coalition government MPs accused SYRIZA of populism, with New Democracy’s Manolis Kefalogiannis wondering “where will the opposition find the money” and PASOK’s Dimitris Saltouros noting that SYRIZA should “submit proposals to achieve a primary surplus, rather than concoctions such as a return to the drachma or the imposition of the obviously powerful Greece on the European dynasts”.
Kostas Barkas from SYRIZA was highly critical of the government’s fiscal policy and noted that “based on data from the Swiss UBS bank, there were 8,000 new millionaires in Greece in the past four years –but only fifty of them are registered in Greece”, while Giorgos Pantzas accused the coalition government of colluding with the troika to “finish off the country”.
