The debate in Parliament over the State budget for 2015 began ion Wednesday evening, with SYRIZA demanding “a legislative intervention” in the Romanos case to avoid “events with negative effects”, while the Independent Greeks (ANEL) demanded that the government must first “agree with the troika”.
The ANEL president Panos Kammenos spoke of a “virtual reality budget” and warned that the government may introduce a legislative act to circumvent its own budget. SYRIZA spokesman Panagiotis Lafazanis added that the government “is not legitimized” to submit a budget. New Democracy’s main speaker An. Lykourentzos stressed that “we submitted the budget because we believe in the capabilities of the economy, the Greek people and our policies”.
On behalf of PASOK, MP Yannis Koutsoukos underlined the importance of the Eurogroup Summit on the 8th of December and stressed that “there is no room for any fiscal or tax measures”. DIMAR MP Asimina Xirotiri commented that the budget was “under complete and painful review” since the troika is pressuring for further measures, in preparation of a third bailout.
The Communist Party (KKE) MP N. Karathanasopoulos stated that the budget was unfair and focused on tax revenue, stressing that it is similar to the previous budgets which had a profound impact on the people’s income. Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panagiotaros spoke of a “colonial budget”.
The discussion in Parliament over the 2015 budget is set to conclude on Sunday the 7th of December with a vote, which also inadvertently acts as a vote of confidence towards the government.
