Greek ruling party heads towards split before bailout vote

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza party looked set to split after the leader of its far-left faction called on Thursday for a new movement to fight a bailout deal that lawmakers are due to vote on in the coming hours. Days after striking a deal with foreign creditors, Tsipras is asking parliament to approve a bailout agreement that pledges tax hikes and spending cuts in exchange for 85 billion euros in fresh loans. It will be Greece’s third financial rescue programme agreed with creditors in five years. The vote will test the strength of a rebellion by anti-austerity Syriza lawmakers, which could raise pressure on Tsipras to call snap elections as early as September.

The fight against the new bailout starts today, by mobilising people in every corner of the country.

Panagiotis Lafazanis

The rebels’ leader, former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, took a step towards breaking away from Syriza, a coalition of leftist groups which stormed to power in January promising to reverse austerity policies demanded by the euro zone and International Monetary Fund creditors. Parliament, however, is expected to approve the bailout agreement by a comfortable margin when it finally votes since opposition parties have promised their backing for the government to ensure Greece does not return to financial chaos. Once the bill is passed, the euro zone finance ministers are expected to pave the way for disbursement of aid before a 3.2 billion euro debt payment to the European Central Bank falls due next week.

Europe bailout