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With 178 votes ‘for’ and 120 votes ‘against’, this morning the Greek Parliament approved the referendum proposed by Prime Minister Tsipras. The referendum was supported by the MPs of SYRIZA, the Independent Greeks and Golden Dawn; the MPs of New Democracy, Potami, PASOK and the Communist Party voted against.

After the proposal’s adoption, the parliament speaker, Zoe Kostandopoulou, went to the presidency to hand over the official result of the vote and agree the necessary procedures with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

The debates on the proposal began yesterday at 12:00, and continued until after midnight.

In his speech, Alexis Tsipras said: "The people should say a big 'no' to the ultimatum, which offends the democratic tradition in Europe." He also pledged that after 6 July the government will respect the outcome of the referendum, whatever it might be.

Along with that, the prime minister argued that any attempt to cast the vote for the rejection of the new memorandum as a vote on the currency undermines the very democratic process and unmasks the secret plans of the memorandum friends.

"I will not ask Mr. Schäuble and Mr. Dijsselbloem for permission to give the floor to the Greek people and to protect democracy in the country where it was born," said Tsipras, and added that he would respect the vote of the Greeks.

The leader of New Democracy, Antonis Samaras, attacked the prime minister in his speech. He accused him of carrying out a coup d'état by holding a parody of a referendum and calling on the Greek people to decide ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to Europe and the euro.

"We have achieved an agreement, which is worse than any memorandum. You have satisfied fully and unconditionally all demands of the creditors ... You made an election promise to bring in €11 billion, and instead approved €8.5 billion worth of austerity measures. This is your nightmare," said Samaras.

Despite expectations, New Democracy abstained from proposing a no confidence vote against the government. It would have frozen the discussions on the referendum in parliament, but the party leadership decided against resorting to that weapon, even though it is allowed by the parliament’s rules.

On late Saturday afternoon, the reports of the failure of talks in Brussels charged the atmosphere in parliament. It had already been heated enough by the long delay of the government in presenting to parliament the two texts of the institutions, on the basis of which the citizens have to determine their vote.

At the outset of the discussion, the PASOK leader, Evangelos Venizelos, denounced the government initiative as anti-constitutional, but his objection was predictably rejected as he only got backing from New Democracy.

Venizelos demanded from the parliamentary floor: "Have you ever heard of a referendum being held somewhere within five days? ... This is the beginning of a coup. You have no idea what mess you are sinking into." Then he added: "The question is false: who wants more taxes or to lose rights?"

The parliamentary representative of the Communist Party argued that the people are being called upon to choose between the proposal of the creditors and that of the government. In describing the dilemma, Thanassis Pafilis didn't mince his words: "Both proposals contain measures, which are barbarous and adverse to the people; they are pointing in one and the same direction. People are asked to choose between the guillotine offered by creditors and the government’s proposal to slit their throats."