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Anastasia Balezdrova

With a midnight roll call vote the Greek Parliament has to give a vote of confidence to the Prime Minister George Papandreou and his government. It is expected that the government will eventually get the required vote. The difficulties will come on the 28^th of June when the mid-term program for the economic development of Greece in the period 2012-2015 year will be voted. Many lawmakers from the ruling PASOK party warned that they will support the cabinet this night, but that does not mean a carte blanche for it.

The first news in this direction came from one of the strongest supporters of the mid-term program, the socialist Andreas Makripidis who resigned today as a MP from PASOK. The reasons for his resignation are not announced officially, but in private conversations Makripidis expressed his bitterness that he had not been appointed a deputy minister in the recent government reshuffle. According to him, random people were assigned as deputy ministers at the last minute and he remained outside.

Political squabbles in Athens are played at a time when Europe exerts pressure on Greece to be active and begin to apply more stringent fiscal discipline. The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned that the fifth tranche of the aid would be paid after the mid-term program is adopted and the law for its application is voted. The Minister of Finance of Germany Wolfgang Schäuble called the Greek government to privatize one plant every 10 days.

While the lawmakers are preparing for the decisive vote, discontented people are gathering around the Parliament, reports Anastasia Balezdrova from Syntagma Square. The situation is still calm, the police are cutting off the streets around the square and are slowly building blockades around the Parliament building. A dozen of youths approached the police cordon at 21.30 and began shouting derisively: "Your mothers and fathers are on the square. What are you waiting for? Spray tear gas at them." An indignant woman turned to the police: "Why do you protect lawmakers?"