Alexis Tsipras prepared to step down as parliament set to pass punishing austerity measures

And there you have it. As mentioned in an earlier post, don’t expect him to stay in power for much longer. The Greek ‘no’ vote couldn’t have been a more clear message to leadership, but they still intentionally went the opposite direction. Self-proclaimed Communists Tsipras and Varoufakis are beginning to look more like a hit team whose assignment was do to a quick hit and run.

 

Greek prime minister hinted his position will no longer remain tenable if he did not get the majority backing of his Leftist Syriza party over a bail-out deal

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras was ready to stand down from office on Wednesday night, as a Leftist rebellion erupted within his Syriza party over the punishing austerity measures the country needs to stay in the eurozone.

Greece’s lawmakers gathered for a midnight vote on reforms that would raise VAT, cut pensions spending and reform the country’s statistics body. The measures were passed with the support of Greece’s main opposition parties, with 229 voting “yes” and 64 voting “no”. There were six abstentions.

Outside the parliament, troubled flared briefly as groups of anarchists who were part of an anti-austerity protest threw petrol bombs at police, who barricaded the street leading to the entrance to parliament with several riot vans.

‘We have been betrayed!’ Protest turns violent as Greece votes

 

Athens (AFP) – Firebombs thrown by furious anti-austerity protesters exploded in front of Greece’s parliament Wednesday as anger over a new bailout deal spilled onto the streets of the capital.

As lawmakers prepared to vote on the unpopular deal, police fired tear gas to push back dozens of hooded and masked protesters, who threw rocks and stones as they chanted angrily in Syntagma square.

“We have been betrayed!” shouted a man in a balaclava, as police used pepper spray and gas to stop a crowd breaching a security line blocking off the road to the prime minister’s office.

Greece ‘48 Hours Away From Unrest’

Please see the source link for the video.

 

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras probably has 48 hours to resolve a standoff with creditors before civil unrest breaks out and ATMs run out of cash, hedge fund Balyasny Asset Management said.

Fund managers are questioning how the International Monetary Fund and Europe’s leaders can seal a deal with Athens following the “no” vote in a Greek referendum on Sunday. Sixty-one percent of voters rejected austerity, increasing the likelihood of an exit from the euro area.

The next few days will transform Greece and Europe

As it turns out, the Greek crisis ends not with a bang, but with a referendum.

It has been easy to ignore the doings in Greece for the past few years, with the perpetual series of summits in Brussels that never seem to resolve anything. But it’s time to pay attention. These next few days are shaping up to become a transformational moment in the 60-year project of building a unified Europe. We just don’t yet know what sort of transformation it will be.

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Whatever the exact phrasing of the question (and assuming the referendum goes forward as planned), it really boils down to this simple choice: