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Greek Parliamentary Majority Votes in Favor of Tsipras' Pension Bonuses, Island VAT Decrease

voylh-syzh-thumb-largeA parliamentary majority on Thursday voted in favor of the one-off bonuses to low-income pensioners and VAT deductions on Aegean islands, with 196 votes out of 257.
All the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition lawmakers voted in favor of the bills, something that was expected. Golden Dawn, the Greek Communist Party and Democratic Coalition (PASOK-DIMAR) also voted “Yes.”
New Democracy MPs called “present,” on the grounds that the benefits were nothing more than a tactical move with no real value, and, more importantly, it was done without the consent of creditors and the measures might be against the bailout agreement.
To Potami abstained from the procedure, and so did the Centrists Union lawmakers. It should be noted that the Democratic Coalition voted in favor of the benefits, but with many disagreements within the party.
The vote was done by roll call, as requested by the ruling party. The benefit for low-income pensioners will be added to a labor ministry bill to be voted on Thursday, and the VAT reductions are added to a finance ministry bill which will be approved on Monday.
The two measures proposed by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last week generated a controversy, as the Greek government had not informed creditors or asked for approval. As a result, the European Stability Mechanism decided to freeze the short-term debt relief measures Greece and creditors had agreed on at the December 5 Eurogroup. The measures raised significant concerns regarding the country’s bailout commitments to euro zone lenders.
Political analysts say that the timing and the hastiness with which Tsipras is handing out the benefits makes them look more like favors to key voter groups ahead of snap elections in 2017.

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