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Anastasia Balezdrova

At 04:00 am, the Greek Parliament voted the second package of measures to be adopted for the completion of the second rescue programme to Greece and for the launch of negotiations on the third. The measures include the simplification of the Civil Code and the introduction of EU rules to rescue banks.

230 MPs gave a positive vote, 63 negative and 5 abstained. Once again, 126 MPs of SYRIZA and Independent Greeks supported the bill. Government circles had recently pointed out that if their number fell below the critical minimum of 120, the cabinet would fall.

Having lost the support of hardliners in SYRIZA, Tsipras relies on the support of the pro-European opposition to push through the severe measures. Almost all SYRIZA MPs who gave a negative vote last Wednesday reiterated their vote or abstained with the exception of former Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis whose resounding "no" of last week became "yes" this time. In contrast, all members of the Left Platform voted "no", despite the warning of the Prime Minister that he would not allow the MPs in question "to hide and make heroic statements," hiding behind his signature on the agreement.

The atmosphere of the meeting was tense. In his speech, Alexis Tsipras said that he would implement the agreement signed in Brussels, although he considered wrong the policies imposed by it. "The conservative forces in Europe are not yet giving up their plans to take Greece out of the euro zone. We have agreed on a difficult compromise to avoid the most extreme plans of the extreme conservative circles in Europe," he said.

The meeting was late in starting, following a passionate debate about the procedure. President of the parliament Zoe Konstantopoulou once again left the presidium and shortly before the voting (at about 03:35 am) delivered an impassioned speech against the agreement and creditors.

Earlier, the New Democracy party and the centre-left Potami had urged the government to table a no confidence vote against her but such action was not taken. Tsipras will meet Konstantopoulou in the government residence Maximou at 12:00 on Thursday at her request.