Despite running street battles on Sunday as Greek citizens protested new austerity measures, parliament debated and passed the bill. 3.2 Billion euros in savings will come about through a combination wage cuts, layoffs, pension reductions and new tax measures.
The Troika of the EU, IMF and ECB also wants a further 325 Million Euros in savings to be found this week. The measures had to be passed so that Greece can receive 14.5Billion Euros in funding by March 20.
The Greek parliament will vote on the new measures. The troika will not release the next set of bailout funds that Greece's needs to pay its creditors in March. Greece has14.5Billion euros of bond payments to make in March, if the funds are not released it will lead to a disorderly default.
The coalition government and the political parties backing it had come under intense pressure to put their commitment in writing to the cost-cutting demanded in return for rescue funds.
The latest bailout agreement also contains a private sector bond swap that will slice €100bn from the country's €350bn debt pile in the hope of bringing it down to 120% of GDP by 2020.
The head of the Laos party criticized Germany as having hegemony over Europe, because of its economic power. He statd that decisions about Europe are made in Berlin and are supported by German satellites of Finland, Austria, Holland, and Luxembourg.
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