Greek Parliament grants leftist SYRIZA govt its vote of confidence with 155 votes!

Greece’s Parliament provided a widely expected vote of confidence to the leftist-dominated SYRIZA coalition government shortly before 2 a.m. on Thursday morning. Of the 299 MPs in Greece’s Parliament, 155 voted in favor, 144 against and 1 abstained. The abstention was that of conservative deputy Nikos Dendias, who sent a letter concerning his opinions which did not count towards the voting.

Leftist SYRIZA easily won the general election on January 25 with just over 36% of the general vote, turning Alexis Tsipras into the youngest Greek prime minister in recent memory. Unfortunately, after seven months of wrangling and tough negotiations and a referendum in July where millions massively rejected austerity for Greece, Tsipras failed to keep his election pledges and saw his party split into a newly created Popular Unity Party.

Tough reforms were voted on with the support of opposition parties before Tsipras declared early elections on September 20. Voters opted to give a second chance to SYRIZA despite the imposition of capital controls and social devastation. This time it was not a vote for hope but a vote for the lesser evil.

Following the vote of confidence, Greece will now need to implement the third memorandum (bailout) and even more aggressive austerity – the toughest yet!