Parliament ratifies Greek-French defense deal with 191 votes
The Greek-French defense agreement signed in Paris on September 28 was ratified by Parliament in Athens on Friday, with 191 votes in the 300-seat House.
The five-year agreement, which outlines the purchase of three navy warships from France for roughly 3 billion euros and includes a mutual assistance clause in the event of an attack, was green-lighted the lawmakers of ruling New Democracy, as well as by the center-left Movement for Change and the nationalist Greek Solution parties. Konsantinos Bogdanos, an independent lawmaker who was ousted from conservative ND on Tuesday, also voted in favor the deal.
The main opposition SYRIZA, along with the Greek Communist Party and the leftist MeRA25 voted against the agreement, with 109 nays.
The vote came after an acrimonious debate, during which Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis lambasted SYRIZA for its continued opposition to the agreement.
The leader of the leftist party, Alexis Tsipras, described the deal as a “mistake” and accused Mitsotakis “of shopping for frigates as if he were shopping ties.”
“For the first time it is clearly stipulated that there be military assistance in the event of a third party attacking one of the two states. And we all know who is threatening whom with a casus belli in the Mediterranean,” Mitsotakis told lawmakers, defending the agreement, in a clear reference to Turkey.
