Greek Govt Survives No-Confidence Vote Monday Nov 11,2013

The conservative-led coalition government of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has survived a vote of no-confidence in parliament

The vote had been tabled by the left-wing opposition Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) Party

The motion was defeated by 153 votes to 124 in the 300-seat parliament

One Socialist member of the governing coalition voted in favour of the motion, and was expelled as a result.

The debate took place during a crucial inspection visit of representatives of the so-called "troika" of lenders, who are in Athens to check its progress in meeting bailout targets before they approve the release of up to 5.9 billion euros (£4.9 billion) in lifeline loans

Besides SYRIZA, the motion was supported by the Communist Party, the right-wing populist Independent Greeks and the extreme right Golden Dawn. Democratic Left, a coalition partner for a year to June 2013, voted "present"

Absentees included three Golden Dawn MPs, including the party's leader and deputy leader, who have been jailed since October on charges of belonging to a criminal organisation.


Antonis Samaras's Govt and the troika are still at loggerheads over how many additional savings Athens needs to hit its 2014 budget targets

Under the terms of its 240-billion euro bailout, Athens must achieve a primary budget surplus, before interest payments, of 2.75 billion euros next year, or 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)

The troika currently estimates that Greece will fall about 2 billion euros short of that target and is forcing Samaras to come up with new budget measures to fill that "fiscal gap"
 
Syriza is strongly opposed to the government's austerity measures which have been imposed to meet the terms of an international bailout


Note

Outside parliament, several thousand Syriza supporters rallied to demonstrate their support for the no-confidence call

About 3,500 Syriza supporters gathered outside parliament during the debate, holding banners and shouting: "Take your bailout and get out of here"

Syriza filed the censure motion after riot police stormed the headquarters of former state broadcaster ERT on Thursday to end a protracted sit-in of journalists who were fired five months ago.