Full support for multi-bill from gov’t lawmakers
The multi-bill of prior actions needed for Greece to receive its latest bailout sub-tranche from its lenders passed through Parliament without any problems last night as it was backed by all 153 coalition MPs.
The legislation was opposed by all the opposition parties, with 138 lawmakers voting against the provisions, which include auctioning off 49 percent of electricity transmission company ADMIE and selling large nonperforming business loans to private funds.
Although government MPs fully backed the legislation they appeared mostly reluctant to speak in defense of the omnibus bill. This suggests that difficult weeks lie ahead for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as his government will need to address a number of sensitive issues, including pension reform and the resumption of negotiations with lenders about whether other NPLs, including those linked to primary residences, will be sold by banks in the future.
“We will see who we will be able to support and what we will be able to negotiate regarding mortgages, loans taken out by small and medium-sized enterprises and consumer loans,” said Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos.
“We will look at all this from January. We will discuss, we will negotiate and we may make compromises,” he added.
