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One of the most crucial meetings in the history of Cyprus’ parliament will begin at 4 pm. The deputies will support or reject the cuts of bank deposits, which have been set as a condition for receiving a bailout at the meeting of Eurogroup on Friday.

A stormy debate is expected because several wings in the 56-seat parliament are against the bill. The communist AKEL party, which was in power until recently and which has 19 seats in parliament, and the Movement for Social Democracy EDEK with its 5 deputies, have already rejected the bailout.

Even the attitude to it of the small partner in the government of President Nikos Anastasiadis – the Democratic Party DIKO – is critical.

The balance is fragile and no one can predict the outcome of the vote. The ruling DISI party has 20 seats and needs the support of other parliamentary forces to pass the measures.

Even if all members of DISI and DIKO support the bill, it will not be accepted, because the sum of deputies is 28, i.e. one less than required.

The Cypriot government is making every effort to secure the ratification of the agreement with the lenders before the banks open on Tuesday because of fears of massive withdrawals of deposits.

Currently, the President is informing the deputies about the outcome of the meeting of the Eurogroup. At the same time, the movement of independent free citizens has been calling on the parties to vote against the bill to cut bank deposits. The movement has called a protest outside the parliament building at 2:30 pm.

According to Cypriot economist and Nobel Prize Winner in Economics Christoforos Pisaridis, the consequences of not voting the bill will be dramatic. In statements before the Cypriot news agency CNA, Pisaridis states, "If the bill is not passed the consequences will be even worse. Bankruptcies will follow and a large number of Cypriots will lose all their money because the banks simply will not open anymore."

Indicative of the uncertainty is the fact that the United Kingdom has issued a warning to its citizens who are going to travel to Cyprus. The document states that the Cypriot government is implementing measures to protect the banking system and that British citizens will have to require more information from their banks.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged British citizens to have at their disposal alternative currencies and payment methods such as GBP, EUR, credit and debit cards.

To be continued