ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s parliament overwhelmingly approved a new batch of reforms today demanded by the country’s international creditors, clearing the way for talks on a third multibillion euro bailout without which the country faces total financial ruin.
Lawmakers voted 230-63 in favor of the measures, following a whirlwind debate that ended at 4 a.m. Another five members voted present, a kind of abstention.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras once again suffered a revolt among his own radical left Syriza party lawmakers, but had no trouble passing the draft legislation with the backing of pro-European opposition parties.
The number of disaffected Syriza lawmakers, who see the reforms as a betrayal of the anti-austerity platform that brought their party to power in January, shrunk slightly compared to last week’s similar vote.
The reforms were the final prerequisite before Greece can start negotiations with creditors on a third bailout worth around 85 billion euros ($93 billion).
Failure to have approved them would have derailed the bailout and rekindled fears over Greece’s future in the shared euro currency.
Addressing parliament before the vote, Tsipras said the reforms were a necessary price to pay to keep Greece alive after stormy talks with its creditors nearly collapsed earlier this month.
“We have chosen a compromise that forces us to implement a program in which we do not believe, and we will implement it because the alternatives are tough,” he told lawmakers. “We are summoned today to legislate under a state of emergency.”
Tsipras said approval would give Greece breathing room to quash speculation that the country will be forced to abandon the euro, and help it regain market confidence and eventually tap bond markets again.
Before the debate got underway, about 10,000 people demonstrated outside parliament, protesting the latest measures to overhaul Greece’s judicial and banking sectors. Minor violence marred the end of the protest when a few teenagers threw petrol bombs at riot police, but no injuries or arrests were reported.
Negotiations with creditors are now expected to start soon.
The Syriza-led coalition government hopes the new bailout talks can conclude before Aug. 20, when Greece must repay a debt worth more than 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) to the European Central Bank.
On Wednesday, the ECB provided a new vital cash injection to Greece’s battered banks. A European banking official said the ECB decided to increase emergency liquidity to Greek banks by 900 million euros ($980 million) — the second such cash injection in just under a week.
Fearing a run by depositors flocking to take their savings out of Greek banks, the government imposed capital controls more than three weeks ago, restricting daily withdrawals to 60 euros ($65) per account holder. Extra ECB liquidity means that Greek banks will still be able to hand out cash.
Greece has relied on bailout loans totaling 240 billion euros since 2010 after it was locked out of international money markets. It nearly crashed out of the eurozone this month, after relations between Athens and its creditors hit rock-bottom, and was only saved by a last-minute U-turn from Tsipras.
