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Victoria Mindova

With 36 votes against and 19 abstentions, the Parliament of Cyprus has rejected the bailout from Europe and the International Monetary Fund, which the country would have received if it had cut the bank deposits. The 19 abstentions are from members of the ruling party Democratic Rally (DISI).

The deputies of the Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL), the Movement for Social Democracy (EDEK), and the members of the European Green Party have rejected the rescue plan for the Cypriot economy.

"I feel sorry for the Cypriots" was the comment of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble according to deputies cited by Ethnos. Reuters reports that Great Britain is sending to Cyprus a military plane with one million euro to be at the disposal of the British troops deployed on the island in case ATMs and debit cards stop working. Member of the Management Board of the European Central Bank Ewald Nowotny states that the bank will not stop the liquidity to the Cypriot financial institutions despite the rejection of the programme adopted by Eurogroup as reported by Naftemporiki, which refers to Dow Jones.

In Greece, about 50 representatives of the parliamentary opposition SYRIZA gathered outside the European Commission offices in Athens to protest against the rescue plan for the Cypriot economy. "By imposing a tax on the deposits of citizens Europe will destroy the financial system of Cyprus. The programme in combination with the other fiscal consolidation measures adopted at the last meeting of euro zone finance ministers will bring the economy to social and economic collapse," the representative of the radical left Panagiotis Lafazanis told GRReporter. "We strongly oppose the decisions of Eurogroup."

SYRIZA’s strong position against the tax on large deposits makes ​​a particular impression mainly because last year, representatives of the opposition party had said that if SYRIZA came to power it would use funds from bank deposits to compensate for the other measures in the rescue programme (reduction of pensions, salaries, etc.).

Having reminded Panagiotis Lafazanis of this fact, he hastened to respond with clear exasperation, "SYRIZA has never had such a proposal in its programme. Those are innuendos of our political opponents from New Democracy." However, Dimitris Stratoulis’ statements made during the election campaign in Greece in the summer of 2012 clearly show that the opposition party had drawn a bead on the deposits of Greek citizens, which today is the provision of Cyprus’ programme.

The protest lasted one hour. Members of SYRIZA held up the national flags of Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal. They chanted slogans twice against the European Union policy in Greece and Cyprus, delivered a note of protest against the measures set in the rescue plan of Cyprus and then dispersed.