Greek parliament approves third bailout, government to ask for confidence vote

Greek parliament has approved a draft third bailout of about €85bn (£61bn) after a marathon all-night session, with the government aided by votes from opposition parties and likely to call a confidence vote due to internal divisions.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had urged his fellow members of parliament to vote 'yes' and survived despite up to 42 rebel votes or abstentions from his Syriza party's MPs, including a 'no' vote from former finance minister Yannis Varoufakis.

The vote at 0945 local time saw the government eventually win by a comfortable margin, with 222 yes votes, 64 no, 11 abstentions and three absentees.

The proposed deal involves tax rises and spending cuts, with negotiators having on Tuesday agreed a budget with a primary deficit of 0.25% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015, improving to a 0.5% surplus in 2016, 1.75% in 2017 and a 3.15% surplus in 2018.

Read more: Greece agrees third bailout deal with creditors

Eurozone finance ministers will discuss the terms of the bailout at 14:00 BST, with the agreement expected to be approved by the finance ministers despite some opposition from Germany.

Marathon debate

After a delayed start, the Athens' parliamentary debate saw some furious exchanges, with government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili admitting divisions within Syriza were now so deep that a formal split was probably inevitable.

Due to these divisions, the government was reported to be poised to ask for a confidence vote, and depending on the result, Tsipras could call fresh elections as early as next month.

Skai TV reported Tsipras will call a vote of confidence sometime after August 20, after it was calculated that only 118 government MPs voted to approve the bailout plan - below the 120 votes needed to maintain Tsipras’s majority.

Approval of the bailout agreement by the Greek parliament was one of the key conditions set by creditors for making a first €23bn payment to Greece that would allow the country to make the €3.2bn repayment due to the European Central Bank (ECB) on 20 August.

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